Ok, let me tell you..I am absolutely thrilled right now. I feel amazing! Let's talk about my past half marathon times first so you can see why I'm feeling the way I feel.
Disneyland 2006: 3 hr 05 min 03 seconds
US half San Francisco 2006: 3 hr 12 min 39 seconds
La Jolla 2007: 3 hr 04 min 45 seconds
Silver Strand 2007: 3 hr 17 min 07 seconds (I was sick)
So my goal for the Carlsbad was to break this 3 hr barrier. All I wanted was a 2:59:59. Just to see that 2 there. Throughout the whole run, I was thinking this. Whenever I felt myself slow down, I tried to pick it up. As I got further, I even rationalized that if I saw the clock at the finish read 3:02:00 it would be ok cuz I hadn't crossed the start line at exactly the start time. Here are my official Carlsbad results:
1/20/2008 Carlsbad CA
Carlsbad Marathon - Half Marathon
Bib:6609
Name: Ellen Mae Lim
Gender: F
Age: 25
Hometown: San Diego CA
Place Overall: 5149 out of 6334
Women: 2792 out of 3702
F 25-29: 619 out of 726
AgeGrade: 40.98%
Place: 5308
FINISH: 2:39:31
pace: 12:11
6.6 Mile: 1:20:12
pace: 12:09
Chip Time: 2:39:31
Gun Time: 2:42:06
Yes, I improved my PR time by 25 min!! I had no idea I was going to improve by that much. It was a shock to see the clock at the finish line. I knew at 5 miles into the race that I was keeping a good 12 min. pace...which was pretty gratifying at the time. All those speed endurance workouts were paying off. Especially since the first couple of miles were crowded and I had to dodge walkers. At mile 10, I was starting to slow. My knees were killing me but I had to keep going. I kept thinking of my goal. The finish was an adrenaline rush. As soon as I hit mile 13, I surged for the last 0.1 mile, seriously passing at least 10 people on the way to the finish line. I made a very Spartan/300 noise though as I surged. Like I was ready to attack. I bet people were laughing, but I could hear lots of people cheering. As I crossed, I was crying with tons of happiness just shocked at what the clock time read knowing my chip time would be a few minutes less. Amazing!
Some noteworthy things about the race. It is very well organized. They have a great expo, lots of volunteers, and plenty of resources. They had plenty of water stations, lots of cheering spectators, and entertainment. That explains a lot about why it was a sold out race. A lot of confident people run these things because let me tell you..I saw a lot of jiggly butt people wearing spandex. Another weirdo thing was seeing this guy run without shoes! That was just ludicrous. He was barefoot on the black pavement...not only is that dangerous, even just walking, but his feet and legs have no support as he hits the ground with each running step.
From what I've heard, so many people got new PR's for this race. The weather was perfect running weather and the rolling hills really make you use more variety of leg muscle that you don't overwear out the main ones soo soon. It's an excellent race for boosting your time..yay!
Anyways...will see about posting pics later when they put them up. Unfortunately, I didn't get any candid pictures because I forgot my camera. But even if I remembered, Chris didn't make it to the finish line in time to see me. Both of us didn't know I would finish that quickly. He thought he had time to check out the lay of the land before settling in at the finish line. Oh well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Congratulations on the new PR. 25 minutes is amazing. Just stumbled across your blog. Nice!
Hi Ellen Mae! CONGRATS!! That's excellent! What a great accomplishment. Thanks for keeping this blog page. It's really exciting to read about your progress. I really enjoy reading about your training and races. Pretty exhilarating. Makes me want to run too....
Congratulations! I'm looking forward to having an opportunity to beat a PR, rather than just try and not die ;)
Hello there! I'm proud of you my dear niece. It's a very great achievement for a professional and a lady like you. So we have the same aspirations not a dream anymore coz your slowly but surely accomplishing your goals. How I wish I will be there to indulge in the sport I didn't dream of joining. I was just influenced by the training I got from the Philippine Military Academy-Baguio where my Papa wanted me to graduate and to be a future General at that. Didn't you know that I also have ran once the half-marathon(Puma) sometime in the late 1980's when I was still working in the Philippines. If I'm not mistaken, my time was 2hrs-30min. My best record in a 10-km Magnolia International Marathon was 55-min. Perhaps I already ran about ten times in a 10-km marathon aside from 5k-7k from 1984-1991. I'm still yearning to run a marathon even a half-marathon but my dream before is to run the full marathon. But due to my age and the required work, I can't cope anymore with the rigorous training and required time. I don't know if I can keep pace with you now as you are becoming stronger and stronger. Well, I'll always pray for your success in your work and chosen sport. GOD bless and regards to Ate Elvin, Kuya Celler & Michelle.
Way to go Ellen! I'm so proud of the progress you've made.
Post a Comment