Race Report: Pasadena Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon

I was definitely long overdue for a half marathon PR.  Up until today, my standing PR was from my second half marathon, which I ran when I was 25, in law school, and living in San Francisco.  That was a really long time ago.

I really didn't think that today would be the day to finally beat the 25-year-old version of myself.  To begin with, my pre-race preparation was not commendable in the least bit.  The day before the race I was nursing the tail end of a cold that Nathan passed onto me after a mere 4 days in day care.  (And the Typhoid Mary phase of child rearing has officially begun. . . )  Since we were staying over in Pasadena the night before the race so Nathan and Ken could try and watch me run, we decided to get together with some of our Eastside friends on Saturday.  After a quick trip to the Expo, I had a pre-dinner meal of the most delicious ice cream imaginable at Carmela, followed by dinner out at Haven, one of Ken's favorite gastropubs.  Then I went to bed at 11 p.m., even though I had to wake up at 5:30 a.m.   Then, Nathan beat me to the punch and decided to wake up at 4:20 a.m.  It's ok though, because as you can see from these pictures from the Expo, he's clearly supportive of my running habit.  

I barely got to the start line on time due to the ridiculous street closures in Pasadena, which forced me to drive five miles east in order to cross Colorado and find parking.  Since parking was over a mile from the Rose Bowl, I had to run to the start line.  Fun fun.

The race itself went much smoother.  It started and ended at the Rose Bowl, which is one of the greatest places on Earth.  Even though I have been to the Rose Bowl a million times, this was the first time that I was going to be running and not watching football and consuming rubbish (read: deliciously unhealthy food and drink).  Newsflash:  it's hilly around the Rose Bowl. The things you don't notice while tailgating/in a vehicle.

The first few miles of the race take you out of the Bowl, onto Orange Grove and then to downtown/Old Town Pasadena.  The whole section is rolling, with a particularly nasty stretch around mile 2.  Adrian wanted me to run the race somewhere between 1:47 and 1:50 based on my 10K race from a few weeks prior, which I knew would require me to average between 8:10 and 8:25 per mile.  I went out fairly conservatively for the first two miles,then felt good enough when I hit the more flat sections of downtown to pick up the pace.  My legs were starting to get really heavy around Mile 8, but I knew that after a pretty decent incline leaving Old Town that there would be a nice descent down the Colorado Bridge (probably the coolest part of the course) once you hit mile 9.  When I got to the bridge, I was greeted by Adrian, who ran with me for about half a mile down the bridge and up the last real "hill" of the course.  It was such a boost and I ended up busting out a 7:21 mile (which almost killed me later).  The last three miles of the course wrap around the golf course, aka where you sat in traffic getting to and from UCLA games. Apparently I decided to pay homage to that gridlock-y post-game traffic (when we were tired, stinky and probably hung over) and went into a bit of a funk the second to last mile and ran my slowest of the race.  Thankfully, the last mile of the course is a slight downhill leading to a flat, so I was able to pull myself together with some extra motivation from Marissa, who passed me with about half a mile to go.  Since I was downright tired by that point, I hadn't been looking at my watch, but was pleasantly surprised to see this when I crossed the line:

I'm definitely happy to have a more current half marathon PR, and depending on how the next few months of training go, I may adjust my time goals for the OC Marathon.  Unfortunately (x100), I have to go back to work on Tuesday after my four months of maternity bliss, and I have a feeling training is about to get a whole lot harder.  I am toying around with the idea of moving some of my runs to the evening and may have to do some double days just get my workouts in, but we'll see.  Although Nathan was on his own schedule this morning and he and Ken missed seeing me on the course by a few minutes, I know he's super happy about my PR too and can't wait to sit in a BOB stroller in a few months!

Stats:

Official time: 13.1 miles @ 1:45:26/8:03 min/mile average
Garmin stats:  13.25 miles @ 1:45:30/7:57 min/mile average
Overall place: 494/4940
Gender place: 88/2711
Division place: 18/511


Mile 1 - 8:13
Mile 2 - 8:12
Mile 3 - 8:07
Mile 4 - 8:03
Mile 5 - 7:54
Mile 6 - 7:52
Mile 7 - 7:57
Mile 8 - 7:56
Mile 9 - 8:05
Mile 10 - 7:21
Mile 11 - 8:00
Mile 12 - 8:20
Mile 13 - 7:40
last 0.25 - 6:59 min/mile average