Friday Five: Prepping for the ORRRC Half

This Sunday is the ORRRC Half. I thought I'd use this week's Friday Five with Courtney, Mar, and Cynthia to talk about mentally preparing for the race. 

Background
My original goal race was February's Paradise Coast Half in Naples, Florida but it was canceled due to course conditions. I was a little relieved because most of my training took place in 20-30 degrees and the race would have been mid-60s to low 70s. On the flip side, I was bummed because it meant I would need to find a new race and jump into another training cycle.

ORRRC Course
I'm not sure what to expect. We run through town for 4 miles, then jump on a bike path. The turn around is at mile 8 and then it's a straight shot back to the finish. Here's a scary quote about elevation: "The course is not flat and some runners state that it seems like you are always going slightly uphill until the last three miles which is a welcome downhill." [source] I also thought this was interesting: here is the elevation chart from Strava, but with two different scales. One looks easy and the other looks terrible. Which will it be?

Elevation - scale matters

Weather
Planning my outfit has been... interesting. Last week, the forecast was mid-40s to 50s (perfect!), but unfortunately a cold front is coming. Now the starting temp will be 27-30 degrees. Chilly temps make my knees creaky, but at least I run better in cold vs. heat.

Weather forecast

Goals
A Let's pretend I'm Forrest Gumping the crap out of Sunday. My A goal is a pie-in-the-sky 8:55 pace for a 1:57 finish. I would love to see an 8 in front of my pace, but it's going to take work.

B This is a more realistic goal that accounts for a few slower miles. 1:59:59, or a 9:09 pace. I absolutely know I can do this. If I don't, it means I lost a mental battle.

C If the day is going poorly I don't want to revert to my normal "don't walk" C goal. No, I think I still need to keep my eye on the prize. I'd like to come out of this with a PR. To make that happen, I need a 2:02:23 or better finish (9:20 pace).

Summary
I want to avoid a mental block on race day. I've run 6 halves and half of those have been great and the others have included pity party walk breaks. This winter I trained consistently and I am a stronger and faster runner than when I set my current PR. I can do it, so I'd better make it happen!

Thanks for reading. I'll let you know how it goes... ;)

Would you listen to music or go without?
What would you wear?