FF Race Team Ambassador Race Re-Cap - Hilton Head Half Marathon

Thanks to Fleet Feet Race Team Ambassador Vy Doan for another great re-cap!

The Hilton Head Half Marathon marked the end of my third week of marathon training and my third half of 2020. Ryan, our good friend Amanda, and I traveled to Hilton Head Friday afternoon after work. Our drive went smoothly, and we had a relaxing evening after packet pickup. We all enjoyed the quintessential pre-race spaghetti meal!

While laying out my ‘flat runner’, which is basically laying out all the items you will wear to the race (outfit, bib, fuel, etc.), I realized I forgot the bottles to my hydration vest! My week had been hectic with beginning a new job and refinancing our house, so I haphazardly packed my bag in about twenty minutes. I will say that I did learn my lesson from the Holden Beach Half Marathon about packing appropriately for weather, so I packed both shorts and tights! I was nervous about running without my vest, but the number of aid stations helped keep me well hydrated. I alternated water and Gatorade at each aid station. 

Race morning, I had a half bowl of oatmeal and a GU salted caramel Stroopwafel. I placed the Stroopwafel on my cup of coffee which made it nice and melty, yum. We then made our way over to the race start. This race had pace leaders with signs showing paces rather than expected finish times (e.g. 9:30 pace instead of 2:05 finish), so I stood with the 9:30 minute/mile pacer. When the race started, it was immediately clear we were moving faster than 9:30 but I stuck with the pack to get out of the crowd that’s often present at the beginning of races. Although I wanted to run with the group the whole time, I made the decision to break off after the first mile as I was breathing more heavily than I wanted so early in the race. I quickly made new friends to run with and kept the pace group in my vision for the first few miles. At mile 7, I finally caught back up with the pace group and felt well enough to pick up my pace for the last 10K. The final 10K of a race, I start doing a lot of mental math and decided I could be close to a 2-hour half again if I stayed positive. I thought about the many things to be thankful for and ended up surprising myself with a 7 second personal record! Overall the Hilton Head Half marathon was a good experience and the pizza at the end was a great too! I have 6 more weeks until my next half marathon so until then I’ll be enjoying training runs, pub runs, and the Bridge Run training program.