Race Recap: Beat the Blerch Virtual Half Marathon

Beat the Blerch Virtual Half Marathon 10/19/21 Cedar Falls, IA

Weather: 70 degrees, sunny

Terrain: Recreation trails and some sidewalks

Distance: 13.1 miles

Course map

It's been a long time (a year!) since I was a regular runner. I've done plenty of hiking and OCR stuff, but running, not so much. But having always been the type of person to say "why not" to a ridiculous physical challenge, I set out on a gorgeous autumn Tuesday to complete this year's Beat the Blerch virtual race. This time I would do a half marathon, using the same course that I ran last year for my Des Moines virtual half, only backwards (the course being reversed, not me literally running BACKWARDS).

I started heading east from Gateway Park, unsure of what my pacing would be. I decided to jog until I thought I should walk, and I made it 90 seconds. Then I decided to walk 90 seconds, then jog again. I kept up this totally impromptu pacing strategy until, I figured, I would grow too exhausted to continue. I felt unstoppable as I weaved my way through George Wyth state park's hard trails. Dropped by the campground to use the bathroom only to discover that it had closed for the winter the day before. Off to another bathroom. I was basically improvising at this point but it didn't take me too far off course. Continued east all the way to the creepy neighborhood in Waterloo, which was far less creepy today. Turns out sunny weather really helps the "yikes" factor. Plus my pace was fantastic - sub-12-minute miles, and feeling easy. I could possibly PR today!

Although the sun was beating down, I wasn't feeling terribly overheated, since there was a lovely breeze. Headed past the Cattle Congress fairgrounds, then made my way downhill into Hartman Reserve county park on the south side of the river. At this point I was around mile 9 and was starting to feel pretty tired. I had just run out of Gatorade Zero and had to switch to water. I think that's where the trouble began. Tried to maintain my 90/90 ratio but my runs started getting shorter. Down to 60/120. I hit Pfeiffer Park at around mile 11 and felt so tired. I was in survival mode and just trying to jog as much as possible. My PR dreams were absolutely dead but I wanted to see if I could get a sub-2:40 half marathon through pure, unfiltered GRIT. 

Looped through Washington Park and was basically the walking dead, but still gave ugly jogging a good go every few minutes. I realized I could cut through downtown and stop by the running store to pick up my CVAST member t-shirt, which I'd not picked up for 8 months (oops). So I continued my walking/hideous jogging until I got to the running store at mile 12.9. Stopped in and got my shirt. I did stop my watch at this point, full disclosure. But I resumed the workout and continued the few blocks back to Gateway for exactly 13.11 miles on my Garmin. And my time? 2:39:40. My third best half marathon time EVER. With no run training. Main takeaway: my indoor training on the mini stepper and climber lately must have MAJOR cross-training value. This is a great omen for my at-home winter training!

Legend in my own living room

Pros:

-Virtual kit. The shirt and medal are amazing (go to my Instagram to see pictures of the swag included).

-Weather. I picked the last gorgeous day of the year, I think.

-Course. I just really enjoy having such a flawless loop. Mostly flat, perfect distance, a couple bathrooms along the way. Who could ask for more?

Cons:

-Fueling. Next time I will bring TWO bottles of Gatorade Zero, instead of one plus water.

-Man, if I hadn't bonked so hard, I could have PRed, LOL.

Race Grade: A. An amazing effort. The kind of workout that takes you to another level.