NODM 1/2 Race Recap 2024

Wow, what an awesome day! I forgot how beautiful this course is - big trees, punchy dips and climbs, wood plank bridges going over gullies full of ferns. The best part is around mile 9ish when you crest a small hill and then suddenly this massive view of the Straight of Juan de Fuca appears. Running the final three miles with the ocean spray and waves right next to you was awesome. Highly recommend this race!

The race recap -

I woke up at 4am and felt pretty good after ~7hrs of sleep. I toasted a bagel with almond butter and honey on top for first breakfast.

Blake and I carpooled to the race finish, a 1.25 hr drive, where we had time to visit the porta-potties and finish off bagel #2 with some honey. Around 7:15am, we got on a shuttle to the race start. The bus seats were surprisingly comfortable, and we felt like we could have taken a nap. I started sipping my Redbull on the shuttle.

At the race start, it was drizzly and about 50 degrees, but didn’t feel that cold. I felt excited and also calm, the music was good and there was a lot of energy as more and more people poured in off the shuttles. 

Race started at 8:30am, so we had about 45 minutes to change our shoes, top off our caffeine intake, and pack our stuff into the drop bags. The time went quickly, and I started my warm-up a little later than usual, 15 min before the start. Just jogged a few minutes, did some skips, butt kicks, 2 short strides, and headed to the start line. 

At the starting line, Blake and I were up near the front, behind the group of shirtless cross-country runners who I was definitely not going to try to keep up with. The gun went off right on time, and I’m so grateful that Blake was there to set the pace and prevent me from going out wayyyy too fast like I usually do. 

I stayed pretty close to Blake for the first 2 miles. He is so incredibly good at pacing, his goal pace was 6:40 and I clocked 6:39 exactly for the first two miles.

The race is a net downhill, but you you rack up 500ft of elevation gain in those middle miles - and miles 3-7 I felt like trash and went much slower than I had hoped to (6:48, 7:25, 7:11, 7:01, and 7:44).  I was struggling to find a rhythm with all the dips and climbs.

I took a regular Maurten gel around mile 4, and a caffeinated Maurten at mile 7. There were 7 aid stations along the half course - which was incredible and more than I needed. I took a sip of water from 4 of them, and a sip of gatorade from one, but probably only got a teaspoon in my mouth each time. Fortunately the Maurten’s go down so smoothly even without water, and I didn’t feel like I needed more with how perfect the weather was. 

The rain slowly turned from a light to a steady drizzle, but I never got cold, honestly it felt really, really good. I still got a little warm and dumped one of the water cups on myself around mile 6 - which made me laugh because it was already raining. Overall the weather felt like a dream after running the Bremerton half marathon a few weeks ago in 80 degree weather!

I felt like I was in a battle with my breathing until mile 8 when finally my respiratory rate and legs decided to get on the same page. Mile 8 & 9 I was finally able to drop the pace and felt encouraged to see 6:52 and then 6:50. 

The good feelings just got better when I crested that final hill and the view of the water floored me. The view combined with the downhill and all of a sudden I felt amazing. The last three miles were total flow. Something about the rhythm of the waves and how big and endless the water seemed to be ... felt like I could run forever.

I started passing a few of the guys that had passed me earlier, which definitely made me feel good. Miles10-13 (6:29 (downhill), 6:37, 6:44, 6:36) and my legs felt fine.

I caught sight of the second place female somewhere around mile 11, and she was pretty far away but I could tell I was gaining on her. I felt so grateful that my legs felt good still so I kept pushing. I made up so much ground that she finished only 2 seconds ahead of me.

Here's the 2nd place finisher with me right on her heels:

 Almost done!

I felt a bit delirious for the first minute after finishing, the push to try and get under 1:30 and catch 2nd place took it out of me. 

Here are the splits all together. I think this might be the strongest negative splits I've had in a race, pretty proud of the last 4 miles:

My speedy friends did amazing - Blake finished 18th overall with a speedy time of 1:26, and Mallorie impressed with a shockingly fast time considering she had been sick and hardly running and not even sure she was going to run until the day before!

Blake and I both got first in the 30-34 age group.

Some random tangents / highlights:

*Some glorious individual had a tent with some yoga mats laid out. Being able to lay down here for a moment after finishing felt so good, and I think it may have helped me avoid my usual post-race hiccups!

* There were over 20 entrants over the age of 70! We got to chat with one of them at the start line, an 80 yr old man who said he’s run 100 marathons.

* I wore my Nike Vaporfly’s, which are now several years old and I am still absolutely in love with them. I think all the front runners were wearing the same shoes, or the newer version of them. 

*Random highlight - I spilled my cup of trail mix all over the ground as we were entering the beer garden. Instead of being annoyed at the mess I made, the kind volunteer surprised me by showing up a few minutes later with a new one for me! She was the best. 

*Leading up to this race, I had about 6 weeks of 40 mile weeks, with a handful of solid workouts, preceded by some pretty dismal mileage. I’m pretty proud of this effort considering and now I really want to keep up the consistent training and do another half marathon. And maybe a BQ??!

*The taper week plan seemed to work pretty well, although I didn’t do a great job staying off my feet on Saturday: 

M 6 miles, easy

T off

W 5 w/ 2@ goal race pace

Th off

F 3 easy w/ 4 x 100m strides

Sat 3 easy (but probably shouldn’t have been moving heavy pots and wheelbarrowing rocks around).

Sun RACE DAY

And finally - I 10/10 recommend the Oak Table in Sequim for a post-race meal. That may have been the highlight of the day.