Día de los Muertos Medio Marathon - Day of the Dead Half Marathon aka the virtual revenge
On October 4th, I ran a virtual Half to replace a canceled Marathon (Petit Train du Nord) and was deflated by the fact that I was within a minute of a PR. The idea of taking my revenge by running another virtual Half to replace another cancelled Marathon (NYRR), on November 1st, took root. To make it more official and fun, DH and I went medal shopping.
After enjoying the extra hour of sleep, I did my regular race morning routine: Eat breakfast, digest for a couple of hours, drive to the site (my mom’s place), warmup and go!
The temperature was around 5°C and slightly cloudy, perfect except for the wind at some point.
My goal was to beat my PR of 1:55:48.
@DopeyBadger and I agreed on a race plan with a 1:53:00 best case target. That positive goal helped a lot.
Not having trained at the target paces this month, I had trouble getting the proper rythme. So km 1, 8, 16, 17 are way too fast, km 3, 13 are too slow and the rest is not really where it was supposed to be. The race itself was pretty uneventful except for crossing a runner dressed as a banana
. I did not get lost and I had enough water to be autonomous. Those are little wins.
Like every time I push a race for time, I thought that this was not for me and I couldn’t do it for a Full
. Fortunately, I tend to forget those pesky mental complaints by the time I am showered and fed.
As I approached our street, I was greeted by DH and DD who took pictures and put the medal around my neck. It was also kind of cute that they had a banana and a mandarin ready for me, even though we were a 100m from our kitchen.
So, drum roll please
, my time was 1:54:01, it’s a PR!
