Good morning! I am in a great mood this morning. Not only is it the weekend, but I did something kind of crazy yesterday…I accidentally set a half marathon PR while running a training run for the runDisney Princess half! I was not even trying to or expecting it, so you can imagine my surprise.
I REALLY didn’t feel like running yesterday, and even let the Twitter world know about it.
I forced myself out the door, with my only goal being to start off slow. I typically start out way to fast then bonk around mile ten (or get calf cramps!) so I knew I wanted to stay between 10:00 and 10:10 for the first six miles.
I was pleased after six to see that I ran a 1:01, which was faster than I ran my six miler on Wednesday. The run Wednesday seemed SO HARD and this one felt great, so I was happy with my effort so far. I guzzled some Gatorade and took gel, not looking forward to seven more miles. I zones out, no music the whole run, and let my mind wander. Before I knew it, I was in the middle of mile 8, and running a 9:20 pace and it surprisingly felt good. I thought surely it was a fluke and wouldn’t last, so I kept on going.
To my total surprise, I was keeping the pace, this is nuts! At mile 9 I did some math and realized I could run a half marathon PR! I of course started paying more attention, and the time ticket by as I continued to run in the 9:00’s. Not going to lie, the last two miles were hard and my pace suffered a bit going back to 10:00, but I knew I was almost done. At that point, I knew I would PR but just didn’t know by how much.
I gave it my all in the last half mile, and stopped at 13.1 with a time of 2:11:39, a nearly four minute PR! I couldn’t believe it and couldn’t stop smiling.
This was exactly the confidence booster I needed after a rough past few races and a rough week of training runs. I love these kinds of fun surprises, and I couldn’t be more proud of myself. I was exhausted, but my body held up on me. No calf cramps (just some tightness) and just a little hip pain towards the end. I know it’s not an “official” race time, but it counts to me.
Post run runners high
QOTD: Have you ever accidentally PR’ed without even trying?
When I was training for a 10 miler last year, I actually set a PR about two weeks before race day. I was a little nervous that I was overshooting my training, but I managed an even better PR on race day!
Woohoo, that’s awesome! I’m going to attempt 11 miles tomorrow, but it’ll have to be on the treadmill and I am TERRIBLE at running on the treadmill… I seriously feel like I just can’t do it for some reason. I have to get over that mental block and just suck it up!
Since there is 2 plus feet of snow I think I will be needing to run my 11 miles tomorrow on a treadmill and I feel the same way as you. It is so mental for me as I know I can run 11 miles!!!
good luck!
Congratulations! It’s so great to have a run like that after a few weeks of feeling off. I’m currently in that place of feeling pretty blah about my runs. Hopefully I’ll have a great run like this soon! 🙂
Wahoo! That is so exciting!! My run last weekend was very similar. It was faster and longer than I have run in about a year! 🙂 Best feeling ever!
That’s so awesome! I’ve PRed during training, but not long distance. Congratulations!
WooHOooo! congratulations! I LOVE when that happens! Way to Go!!!! (happy dance!)
thanks so much!
Congratulations on your half marathon PR during training! What an awesome feeling and great start to the weekend!
Congrats! That is so awesome! I can barely run 3 mils without walking for a bit, so this is totally inspiring!
Congrats! I am still at about 4 miles for my max, but I just started running again after a long break a few months ago. Way to go on your half!
thanks! 🙂
That’s an awesome time! Congrats!
Congrats! That is great! I think sometimes we run our best when we don’t put any pressure on ourselves and we’re just focusing on running. Can’t wait to see what you do in the race. Enjoy the PR high this weekend!
You are so right. I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself!
That’s a great PR surprise – congrats! Keep up the great work – can’t wait to hear about your next runDisney experience…
thanks! Just a couple weeks!
Love it! The training run PR is a great confidence booster! No doubt, you will have a fabulous race at Princess.
thanks I hope so!
I love accidental PRs!! I did one on my 5k during a training run!
I accidentaly PR’d in a half marathon that I had signed up for as a training race for a full marathon. I just wanted to focus on keeping a steady pace (slightly faster than my marathon goal pace) and to my surprise ended up setting a PR of almost 2 minutes!
Congratulations! That’s always fun. Good job, you’ll really be ready for race day.
Awesome job! It’s a great feeling when you get out there and surprise yourself! (Seems to be a lot of that going around this weekend! Hah!)
Good job! I, too, set an accidental PR today. Did the Hilton Head Half Marathon. I’d said I wasn’t shooting for a PR so I didn’t really look at my watch. My IT band starting killing me on the second trip over the bridge & I slowed down the last mile to mile and a half (~10 min. pace). I finished with a PR of 1:53 & took 1st place in the Clydesdale + division. 🙂
that’s awesome way to go!
Not time, but distance – yesterday, too. I’ve never gone beyond 3.5mi. Getting read to start a 10K training plan, and wanted to see if I could go closer to 4. Adjusted my route, and knew it would take me a bit longer than 4, but not sure how much. As I rounded toward home (laps around the neighborhood), I saw I was going to be more like 4.5. I was feeling GREAT, so I just decided to keep going. Ended at 6.04. I still can’t believe it! Guess I can’t doubt my ability to finish a 10K anymore…