Race Report: Oakland Half Marathon 2022

Alright, generally, I like to make you wait and read all the way to the end for the punch line, but I'm just gonna get it out of the way now:

Official: 13.1 miles / 1:40:57 / 7:42 pace
Garmin: 13.14 miles / 1:40:58 / 7:41 pace

In case you forgot, I ran a 1:56:05 half marathon on Feb. 6, just six weeks ago. And while I didn't run that race all-out, I didn't run *this* one all-out either (and that 1:56 felt a LOT harder in the last miles than this 1:40 did). When I tell you I wasn't expecting to run this kind of time, I am not bullshitting you. Yes, I've had some very encouraging workouts lately, and I definitely expected to better my Kaiser Permanente time. But when I say 'better,' I mean by like five to eight minutes, maybe ten minutes faster at most. I thought if I had a really, really great day, maybe I could run 1:45. 

Why did I sign up to run this race?

Originally, I signed up to run this race in March 2020. I'd had a couple of okay-but-not great 10Ks and with so much work travel and other personal travel going on, running had kind of fallen apart in terms of real, structured training and become more catch-as-catch-can via hotel treadmills, squeezing in 3-5 miles in foreign cities and countries between meetings and flights, and very occasionally getting to the gym at ridiculous hours. A couple weeks before the race, I was already waffling about whether I should just show up and give it whatever I had or defer and hope for better circumstances next year.

And then what happened?

Just a global pandemic, friends! Obviously the race was cancelled and people were given the option to roll their registration over to 2021, which I did. Except then there was no 2021 ORF. We had the options to do a virtual race or defer again, and since virtual races just aren't really my bag, I deferred. 

For a while it seemed like I might run the 10K PA race, but we ended up not having a women's team for that race so I stuck with the half. After such a horrendous summer & fall, I hadn't had high hopes for my spring half marathons and had been relieved just to be able to complete the distance at the Kaiser Half in February. Though I knew I wouldn't have a fast race, it had felt really good mentally and I was kind of excited to see how much I could improve after six weeks of training in which I'd had some solid workouts at encouraging paces.

Race Day:

I'll skip over how I'd planned to take BART to the race, but then the train just *didn't come*, so I frantically ran back home to jump in my car and drive there. Thankfully there was no traffic so I was able to make it to Oakland in ~20 minutes, leaving me a reasonable amount of time to say hi to Jen & Sesa (who had just finished the 10K), lube/sunscreen up, drop off my bag, and do a little warm-up jogging.

Originally I'd been a little annoyed that I was going to end up running the half after all since I'd spent the last couple months thinking about the 10K. As time went on, though, I started to get excited about it. The weather was looking good and the course (a bit different from recent years but still starting & finishing in the same spot) seemed reasonably fast with only one slightly uphill out-and-back stretch of 1.5-1.75ish miles (thankfully with a corresponding downhill after).

That said, I still didn't really know what I should target time-wise. I was more interested in running a little conservatively and having an enjoyable race than I was in going out at an ambitious pace and suffering through a miserable last few miles. Ultimately I decided that I'd shoot for around 8:00 pace to start; if that felt too hard in the first few miles, I could back off a bit, and if it still felt comfortable at ~7 miles, I could try picking it up. 

And lucky me! There was a 1:45 pace group, so I decided I'd just tuck in behind my dude & let him do the hard work. This was my first time trying to run with a pacer and I have to say I highly recommend it! It's so much easier to just follow someone mindlessly than it is to constantly worry about your own pace.

ORF Starting Line

In the first couple of miles with the group, I thought, "This feels pretty good, I'm just going to hang out with this dude until mile 7, & if I still feel good then, I'll pick it up. But definitely NO SUB-8:00 MILES and NO GETTING AHEAD OF PACER DUDE until then. Let's make sure this is a good experience and not a death march at the end." 

I missed the first mile split (because LA LA LA PACER WHO CARES), but then the second split was 7:40, and the third one was 7:44, and I starting thinking "Uhhhhhh my dude that is significantly faster than 8:00." But also...it didn't feel very hard?

I'd find myself starting to drift ahead of him occasionally and then reprimand myself, "Cool it, hotshot, this is mile 3 we're in. Stay with the pacer *at least* until mile 6."

But...I just couldn't?? Like I felt like I was just running comfortably, not pushing at all, and I was getting way way WAY ahead of the group and clicking off 7:51, 7:24, 7:54, constantly trying to make myself slow down to closer to 8:00 and constantly feeling like that was just slower than my body wanted to run today.

So, new plan: "OK, we run by effort. BUT we must be honest, keeping ONLY at this comfortably-fast-but-not-pushing level of effort until *at least* mile 8."

Result: 7:45, 7:39

Now, mid-mile 8 was where the uphill out-and-back started and continued on for close to two miles. I was glad I knew where it was so that I could mentally prepare for it; though it was not a super steep uphill (between 1-3% grade if we believe Garmin), it was definitely noticeable, and my splits reflected that (8:02,8:08). 

I'd say "Oh, I wasn't worried about the slow uphill splits because I knew there was a corresponding downhill coming," but the truth was that I'd been running so unbelievably fast compared to my expectations for the whole race that I honestly didn't care -- unless I completely fell apart in the last three miles, my time was already going to wildly exceed my expectations.

I had a gel at mile 9, which I think did not sit quite right in my stomach -- as we hit the top of the hill and headed into the turnaround I started to feel kind of nauseous and not well for the first time in the race and thought, "Sigh, I guess all races have to get unpleasant at some point, oh well." But then I got some water at the next aid station and started back down the hill and immediately felt better. 

While my legs felt tired, I hadn't pushed myself hard yet because I'd wanted to finish strong and not miserable. Here we were at mile 10, though, so I thought, "Welp, if you want to really go for it, now is the time!" 

I started picking up the pace and really trying to run at the outside of what I thought I could do for 3.1 miles; it was hard, but hard in a way that was familiar from the few two- and three-mile tempo interval workouts I'd done over the last few weeks, which stoked my confidence. Nothing but a three-mile tempo run, I thought. Easy peasy. It also helped that I didn't have a time or pace goal -- I could just run at whatever effort level it felt like I could maintain for three more miles.

I was stunned to see a 7:15 split on my watch for mile 11 but it felt good so I just went with it. By then it was getting warm in the sun and I was definitely ready to be done running, which I think is reflected in my last splits (7:23, 7:23, 0:59/6:43 pace).

I really hadn't been looking at my watch much other than splits because I just didn't want to get too caught up in predicting my finish time and playing games with myself trying to beat a certain arbitrary time -- I really just wanted to try to concentrate on running by feel, running comfortably hard but not so hard that I'd risk blowing up at the end. So when I saw the finish time on my watch, I was kind of like, "Uhhhh what the holy heck??" I mean like I can do math and I'd seen my splits so I wasn't completely shocked, but it was just *so* far outside of what I had thought might happen today under even the best circumstances.

While I waited in line for the bag check eating my orange, I kept trying to remember when the last time was that I ran a half marathon faster than this. In 2017 I knew I'd run 1:41:something, but before that it had to be...2013?? "No," I kept thinking, "no, that can't be right." But in my mind I couldn't come up with another race since 2013 where I thought I'd run under 1:41. Once home, a quick scan of the blog archives confirmed it:

*** Angela's All-Time Fastest Half Marathons:***

1) Healdsburg Half Marathon, 2012 -- 1:38:52

2) Oakland Half Marathon, 2013 -- 1:39:30

3) Windsor Half Marathon, 2012 -- 1:39:45

4) !!!!Oakland Half Marathon, 2022!!!! -- 1:40:57

5) San Jose Half Marathon, 2017 -- 1:41:07

So yeah. While 2017 was very close, this was the fastest half marathon I've run in nine years.

NINE.

YEARS.

Frankly, I just don't know what to do with this information. I didn't even run this race all-out until the last three miles; I ran the first seven quite conservatively in terms of effort, and there is part of me that wonders just how close I could have gotten to sub-1:40 if those two uphill miles had been slightly flatter and the sun had been slightly less, y'know, *sunny*. Not because I'm disappointed at all! Just sort of out of idle curiosity.

Recently, Keira D'Amato posted on her instagram 10 things she wished she'd figured out about running when she was much younger. (If you don't know who Keira D'Amato is, a) WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN and b) your life is about to get just a little bit more awesome, you are welcome). They were all pretty insightful but two of them really stuck with me when I was thinking about the races I have coming up after such a shitty 2021, especially this first one. The first was, "Take the race off the pedestal, it's just another workout"; the second was "Chase happiness, not success."

Now it's one thing for recreational runners like moi to try to think like that, but it really takes on a whole other level of significance when a professional, American-record-setting runner like D'Amato is saying it. It really made me think about how so many of the races in the past that I tried to take really "seriously," doing all the right prep, putting a ton of pressure on myself, investing them with so much significance ended up disappointing me, and also how so many of my PRs and other strong races came when I wasn't expecting it, when I just showed up & gave it my best without really worrying too much about the outcome. (Of course, I was still well-trained at those times -- doing the work may not always be sufficient, but it's definitely necessary!)

Likewise, I know I wasted so, so many years focusing on achievements at the expense of enjoying the process. (Which, come to think of it, points to a third thing Keira said on the same day: "Fun isn’t inversely connected to success." It's not one or the other, people!) 

WIth this race, I wasn't chasing anything specific; I just said, "Hey, I ran 1:56 six weeks ago, let's see how much better I can do and whatever that is is fine." I said, "You know what, I'm really here to have fun today and enjoy running, I'm not interested in staring at my watch and agonizing over seconds every mile and seeing just how finely I can ride the line of suffering vs. blowing up." 

If I'd done that, could I have run a bit faster? Maybe! But also, maybe not! And more importantly, I don't actually care. I'm super happy with how the day went and I am sooooo over wasting time wondering what-if-what-if-what-if. If an incredibly successful and accomplished pro runner can look at running that way, this humble hobby jogger can certainly get on board.

What's next?

USATF Masters 10-Mile Championships in Sacramento on April 3 (like, this Sunday lol)! Yes I will almost assuredly be one of the slowest people there in my age group, but I still think it will be a lot of fun. Also I've never gotten the chance to run a real, certified 10-mile race all-out, so I'm excited to see what I can do. :)