Name of the race: Rutgers Unite Half Marathon
Where: New Brunswick, NJ
Date: April 9, 2017
Time: 8:00 am
Distance: 13.1 miles
Terrain: Rolling hills
Entry fee: $75-99 (depending upon when you register; I received a free entry as a prize for the number of race participants who used my race ambassador code)
Swag: Free race photos, mug, and t shirt
Post-race Food: Pretzel, a package of sliced apples, a bag of chips, a package of two chocolate peanut butter sweets (not sure what they were exactly), water, Coke, and Nestle chocolate milk
Time: 2:00:39
Performance: [info will be put in later when it’s up on Athlinks]
Weather: 34 degrees, 80% humidity (I have a hard time believing in the temp, Weather history says the temperature was 45 degrees at 8 am, and I’m more inclined to believe this).
I ran the race that I deserved to run. That’s all I can say about this race. I came home upset and angry at myself. Ben tried to cheer me up, but I wasn’t about to let him not let me have my sulking pity party.
But in a way, I’m glad this happened to me. It means that I care about running. I care about my race results. It means I’m ready to train hard again. If I didn’t care or if I wasn’t ready, my response would have been, “Well, we all have bad races. Just chalk it up and let it go.” But that wasn’t my response. I was furious with myself.
For once I have a spring where I’m not hampered by plantar fasciitis, or sick with bronchitis, or overwhelmed by work and life responsibilities. I don’t have an excuse for why I’m not at my best. Instead of running a great race, I ran over 2 hours for a half where last year, UNABLE TO BREATHE I ran over six minutes faster. Four months and this is what I got to show for it.
So yeah, I’m furious.
Look out, 2017, I’m gunning for you.
A Fast Paced Life 
Absolutely frustrating when this happens. But in some ways, it is a great moment to step back, get angry and then have a great revenge race in a few weeks. Sorry to hear that it didn’t work out as you had hoped. But I have a feeling this is going to lead to a killer Run For The Red.
I needed a kick in the butt and this did it.
I’ve plateaued over the last year even though I feel like I’ve been working harder. So frustrating.
Plateaus suck. Working hard to stay in the same place.
Bad races suck, but they can provide the fuel to get back into training. Hope the next race goes better!
Thanks! I PRed the following week at a 5K, so I’ve made some improvement in my running. I think I’m at a point where I need to do more race-specific training and the gains I get from just getting fitter are over. Two years ago if I got faster at a 5K, I also automatically got faster at the half without any specific half training. Doesn’t seem to work that anymore.
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