Race Report: Wicked Virtual Half Marathon

When I'm "running for two", I race very sparingly and enjoy the break of lowered mileage and a less rigorous training schedule. The Wicked Half Marathon in Wamego, Kansas snuck into my year as a fun girl's trip with my running partner. She needed a race on non-iced over ground to prep for Boston and I was up for a road trip. At the time, I didn't know baby #4 would be on the way, so I planned to race the half too.

Fast forward a couple months and we found out about baby #4 (yay!) but I still planned on jogging the race. Then all of this COVID-19 crazy happened - first Boston was postponed and this race followed suit not too long after, along with basically every other race out there. I don't envy the job of the race directors one bit! This has been new territory to navigate for all.

The Wicked Marathon series changed all of the distances to the virtual option and we were still able to get the run done anyways! I had only ran a virtual 5k and 10k prior to this, so I knew this was going to be an interesting experience.

Our weather for this race ended up being a GORGEOUS sunny day with a temp of 39 degrees. Needless to say, I threw on a long sleeve and shorts to relish in our finally Spring-like weather. (Reality check: we're in a rain/snow blizzard today and back to 20 degrees + 18 mph winds... uffda)

Anyways. At least my virtual race day was perfect! My goal was to run negative splits and to feel good at the end of the race, as I hadn't ran double digits since early February or possibly even January. The challenge in running a virtual race on a beautiful Minnesota Spring day is that 1) no one is there to stop traffic for you like in a real race, 2) all the neighbors are outside and I just had to say "hi" (from a socially acceptable distance) and 3) at 14 weeks pregnant, of course I needed to stop for a bathroom break (see mile #7 below).


Overall the run went really well and running 13.1 after training so little felt fine. At our last baby appointment, I was a bit dehydrated so I made sure to rehydrate well the rest of the week. Even without running over 8 miles in the past month and some, I figured the residual marathon training from last Fall could carry me through!



I wore a few of my Zyia Active favorites on this run and everything checked out perfectly! A long-ish run is a great test for the sports bra - chafing along my rib cage and arm pit area have been an issue with some bras but Zyia's All Star bra was amazing on this run.

The Mesh Hat was a great fit for a sunny day and the Purple Chill T kept me just warm enough when layered over another long sleeve. I had to ditch the coats and vests for one day at least!


Now life is back to regular pregnant runner programming. 13.1 miles is the farthest I have ever run while pregnant and, from now on, I'll likely stick to running around 3 to 6 miles per run. I will definitely keep on with the strength training and prenatal specific work.

Running through pregnancy like I had with our three boys would be nice, but we'll see what's best for our baby #4! Being pregnant now while homeschooling and raising three boys is exhausting in itself - a blessed chaos that I thank the Lord for. I also thank the Lord for coffee. I've learned over the years that the strength and prenatal specific work are even more important than merely running through pregnancy. (Weaknesses and imbalances just lead you to future injury and I don't want to go there again!)

I'm thinking medals for the Wicked Half Marathon will be arriving in the mail sometime and they're even doing placings based on everyone's virtual run times! So maybe it's not fair to the people with super challenging terrain but I sure think it's fun they kept some competition in this event. They did a great job adapting the race to a 100% virtual series.


Let's Connect!

Comments

  1. Way to go on getting that virtual run in. Happy to hear your pregnancy is going so well and you feel good. Have a happy and healthy week ahead. Thanks for joining us

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    1. Thank you, Deborah - hope you have a great week too!

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  2. Great job on the virtual run and excited to hear your pregnancy is going well!

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  3. Congrats, Amy! Truly amazing that you good do that while pregnant and homeschooling the boys! Stay safe. <3

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    1. Doing my best to stay safe and sane :) Thank you, Wendy!

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  4. It's nice that you had great weather for your virtual race! I agree...the one detail that makes a virtual more challenging than a real race, if one is gunning for a fast finish or PR, is the traffic aspect. I have a great spot for a 5K "race route" (as mentioned in my WRD post), but I wouldn't really want to run it for any longer distance. Take care, and stay safe!!

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    1. For sure! And I didn't even think about the traffic aspect in our little town - until I did. This was a fun experience but I'm good with not running another virtual one!

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  5. Great job! I think you're really rocking this! Stay well!

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  6. Great job on the race! My virtual half is coming up on April 26th. I think I'm just going to make it a trail race and take it easy.

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