Coming off my spring and summer high of PR’s across the board, I was really looking forward to applying my newfound speed to the half marathon distance. I had originally planned to make the Victoria Half Marathon my fall goal race, but because of the smoke that overtook the PNW in August, I revised my racing plans and added the Monterey Bay Half to my calendar – just 5 weeks after Victoria. I had still planned to race Victoria with the hopes of improving my time, but I had no specific race plan in mind.
Come October, I was feeling really strong. I was running faster interval splits in all distances than I ever had before and my hamstring was finally starting to feel close to 100%. Victoria was absolutely beautiful and the race did not disappoint. The day before the race I had discovered that my watch was almost dead, so I made the decision the morning of the race to use the stopwatch function instead of GPS. In order to prepare myself for this, I reminded myself of the 5k splits I wanted to hit – and I was prepared to check my watch at those splits. Thankfully Canada uses the metric system, so I was guaranteed 5k splits on the course :)
I had a really great race in Victoria. I ran the first 7 miles with a group of males and their pacing was like clockwork. Then they split off to continue racing the marathon and the next 6 miles were tough. I don’t have watch data to know how I actually ran that race – but I do know that I had to really push to stay on pace after I lost my group. Crossing that finish line with a 1:46 PR made me feel like I qualified for the Olympic Trials all over again. I’m still giddy over that accomplishment (1:17:00).
I continued my training and therapy vigorously after that race. I knew I had another big PR in me, and I was extremely patient about achieving it. My workouts again were faster than I had ever run before – improving my mile interval splits by 5-10 seconds per mile. This was a fitness level I had never dreamed I could achieve.
Monterey was going to be a big race for me, so I decided to take the Friday before off from work and head to California earlier in the day. Upon arriving in San Jose, I was really nervous…before we even landed I could smell the smoke. I was re-living August all over again. I took a shuttle to Monterey and there was relief! The AQI was 44 and “good”. I was feeling confident smoke would not be an issue. The next morning I checked the weather and saw that the AQI was up over 100. Now I was nervous. I went out for a shakeout run, but couldn’t smell any smoke. I was convinced there must be a bubble around Monterey and the smoke was going to hold off for the race. Sadly, I was wrong. The race director was talking closely with the meteorologists and it became clear that the race needed to be canceled. Race cancellations emails were sent out at 6pm on Saturday…and so my crazy story begins.
I had the fortunate opportunity to be placed in a room with another runner from Colorado Springs; her name is Hannah. Monterey was going to be her debut half marathon. She and I quickly became friends and when we learned that the race was canceled we put our heads together and started to research. That’s when we discovered that the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon was taking place the very next day, and at 4:30pm – was this for real? Without hesitation we both signed up for the race, purchased our plane tickets, and were on a flight to Las Vegas by 9am the next day. Were we fools?
What I didn’t know upon arriving in Las Vegas is that we would be starting with 40,000 runners. When we arrived in the starting area, we quickly worked our way up to the front and were able to do a warm-up, thankfully. At this point, all bets were off– I was really just here to run hard and see what I could do when life throws you a curveball.
When the race started, I had it in my head that I needed a pack, but I wasn’t going to start out too fast. I quickly fell into a group that was running exactly the pace I wanted, and I held onto them tight. The first 2.5 miles of this half is uphill, so not starting out too fast was really important. The course does hairpin turn and then we were on a gradual downhill for 7 miles. This time, though, the headwind was strong. I stuck with my group, drafting as much as I could, not really worrying about pace. We were averaging 5:40 along this stretch, and I was hoping to run 5:47/mile. I was nervous, but I was also bold. I had made every effort to get to this race – what was another deviation from the plan going to do to me? I was really happy with the first 9 miles – but then the cramping started. The last four miles I did what I could, but in the end my stomach got the best of me. No warning like the other races – just a gut-wrenching cramp that stopped me dead in the water. This happened three times in the last 4 miles. It’s so discouraging to race your heart and legs out but have your stomach be your limiting factor, but I know this can and will be fixed.
Although I didn’t PR, crossing the finish line in 1:17:06 made me giddy all over again. It was that feeling of “oh! last time wasn’t just a fluke!”. I know I have another PR in me, and I know that the mental strength I gained that weekend is going to be so much more valuable to me than any PR I’ll ever achieve.
Keys to Being Adaptable:
I’m all about the mental game, and I believe that staying positive is so important to success. The instant Hannah and I had decided to sign up for Las Vegas, I quickly made my positive list in my head:
No smoke, better air quality
The race is under the beautiful lights of the Vegas strip
The race is at night?! I LOVE racing at night!
The temperature at race start was 61 and would only get cooler as my body heated up!
Monterey was going to start the women 9 minutes ahead of the men, which increased my chances of running most of the race alone. I had the opportunity to work with a bigger pack in Las Vegas.
Elevation of Las Vegas is at 2000’ – which equates to ~5 seconds per mile slower, so if my time is slower than planned for Monterey, it’s OK
Of course, I would have given anything for the Monterey race to go as planned, but that was not the hand I was dealt that weekend and I needed to be adaptable. Finding and focusing on the positives of the situation enabled me to calmly change my plans and make it to the start line relaxed and ready to race.
Lastly, I want to say that the Big Sur International did a fantastic job notifying the runners of the cancellation and ensuring that nothing from the race went to waste. They donated the leftover food to the families in the Camp Fire and they gave participants the opportunity to donate a portion of their race entry fee to those affected by the fires, as well as the option to defer your race entry to another year. I highly recommend this race to everyone if California is a planned race destination.