Race Recap: Ramblin' Rose Half Marathon

I promise I'll eventually stop rehashing past events and get to my life now, but there's one event that I simply had to talk about: The Duke Medicine Ramblin' Rose Women's Half Marathon (quite a mouthful, eh?), back in mid-October.

There were a lot of reasons that originally prompted me to sign up for this race:

One, it happened on the exact Saturday marked "Half Marathon" of my Hal Higdon's full marathon training plan. That's pretty cool.

Two, it was a women-only race. Although it's always fun to pass guys, it's also really neat to see 3,000 women, many clad in pink, busting out 13.1 miles.

that's a lot of pink!

Finally, the the race started all of 6 miles from my front door. Literally. There was no travel, no getting lost, no crazy-early wake up time-- I simple rolled out of bed, drove about ten minutes, and lined up to run. Brilliant.

To be honest, I crossed the start line without any real expectations. For the majority of marathon training, I had been focused far more on milage than speed, and I didn't really know what my legs were up for. Besides, I had made my sub-2 hour-half goal back in May, and I wan't really sure what to set next: 1:55? Less?

As a result, I ran the first 6 miles without much thought. The course began through downtown Durham and weaved around Duke's East Campus-- places I literally run through nearly every day-- and was honestly a bit boring.  I had run by these houses and down these streets more times than I can count, so the course itself held little charm. I even started listening to music, something I never do during a race (for some reason, listening to music tends to make me slower. Craziness.).

easy running (with horrible form! total t-rex arms!)

When I reached the 10k mark, I was shocked that my time-- 54 minutes-- was actually pretty good. Hey! I thought. If I push it a bit, I can totally PR! 

Then came the hills. Lots and lots and lots of hills.

Although the first half of the course was super-familiar, the second half ventured along roads I had never run on before, and for good reason: they were ridiculously hilly. There were some nice downhills, but for the most part, it was long, steep, grueling climbs. I try to get in a few hills every week, but my legs weren't nearly prepared for this. More than once, I wondered if walking up the very steepest climbs would be any faster. Despite thinking PR! PR!, I knew that I simply had to slow down.

On the bright side, the second half did have fantastic spectators and volunteers. All sorts of people-- other women, families, small kids-- were out in their yards, holding signs and cheering the runners on. Someone had even written inspirational messages in sidewalk chalk on the very steepest hills. Seeing "You're almost at the top!" beneath your feet definitely makes hills a little more bearable :)

crazy flapping ponytail action. 

Near the end of the race, I realized that if I dug deep and pushed, I could still break 2 hours-- not exactly a PR, but still a nice goal. Unfortunately, the race ended on a-- guess what?-- uphill, and despite giving it all I had, I was still a few seconds too slow. Le sigh.

finish line sprint. unfortunately not quite sprinty enough!

Despite feeling meh about my time, it was still a fantastic race. It was well organized, had wonderful supporters, and was a pretty intense hill workout to boot :) I'd definitely run it again.

post-race meet-up with some of my favorite 2010 dukies. good friends,
pink medals, and a wonderful post-race brunch can make even a "meh"
time seem not too shabby :)