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Now that over a week has passed and I’ve had time to reflect and enjoy my time recovering from the race. I am so excited to give you my Prairie Fire Half Marathon Recap 2017 today! As I have said many times during my training this race was a completely different experience from the first time I ran this race.
For some reason, 4 years ago I thought running my first half marathon at this particular race would be a good idea. A few reasons that it may not have been my best idea.
- I graduated from physical therapy school the following weekend.
- I was also studying for my board exams to become a licensed Doctor of Physical Therapy
- I was job hunting for when I graduated and the physical therapy job climate in Wichita this year was not good due to national insurance changes.
Basically, I was stressed out beyond belief. During training I had to complete all of my clinical research and conferences in order to graduate. However, do I regret it? Not in the least!
So a few differences in my experience:
2013
- stressed from my last semester of school
- overweight and out of shape when I started training
- hadn’t been consistently running prior to starting training
- did most of my training on the treadmill
2017
- life is great, not perfect but not stressed out like I was before
- better physical condition prior to starting training
- consistently running before starting training, had a great base
- did most of my training outside!
And for a little picture comparison:
Prairie Fire Half Marathon Recap 2017
The weather was gorgeous for the race. It started at 7:30 and it was a nice cool 58 degrees out. The sun was shining and the Kansas wind was nowhere to be found!
I decided since it was only my 2nd half marathon that I was going to at least start out in a pace group. I have a bad tendency to start out of the gate too fast and wanted to make sure I didn’t do that but also didn’t go too slow either. I started with the 2:15 pace group since that was my goal.
Around miles 5 or 6 at the water break I broke away from the pace group and headed out on my own. I was feeling strong and felt like I could kick it up a little bit soon. I didn’t feel as if I needed to slow down as much for the fuel station like the group did.
I really love the course for this race. It is in downtown Wichita along the river. The scenery is great and the course is pretty flat. The total elevation gain/change per my garmin was 54 feet. Compared to my usual running by my house that is around 250 ft change I could definitely feel the difference!
At mile 10 we headed back south toward the start line and at this point the wind had picked up a little bit and of course it was a south wind. Oh well such is life with running in Kansas. I still was feeling good at this point… Then came mile 12.5. Yupe with .6 miles left of the race my legs were done. I was so glad at this point to have built up a little bit of a buffer for my finish time because it was pure determination that kept my legs going for that last bit of the race.
One first that I had during this race was stopping and using the bathroom. At mile 8 I knew that I couldn’t hold it any longer or for the rest of the race!
I finished the race with an official time of 2:13:36. Which I was extremely happy with!
Splits
| 1 | 10:12 |
| 2 | 9:55 |
| 3 | 10:15 |
| 4 | 10:11 |
| 5 | 9:54 |
| 6 | 9:48 |
| 7 | 9:52 |
| 8 | 10:23 |
| 9 | 10:05 |
| 10 | 10:11 |
| 11 | 9:54 |
| 12 | 10:19 |
| 13 | 10:25 |
After the race
My sister, brother in law, niece and nephew came to support me as well as my #1 fan too! I loved having them there and then afterwards we headed to P.F. Chang’s for a late lunch to celebrate my Birthday a week early! My grandparents and Dad also came over for lunch with us all!
I am so excited to start the next round of training today! I have decided to add in speed-work and hill work to help build up my leg strength as well as more consistent strength training. During this past training cycle I struggled with keeping consistent with my strength training and that is one of my goals for this round this summer!
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