Today was the last day I wore my lucky hat, and although I missed the mark a little bit on my ultimate goal, I still had a fantastic race, so I guess the hat - despite being completely worn out and filthy - still had a bit of luck left in it.
I had a tough time getting to sleep last night, due to being so excited and anxious. I didn't drift off until 11 or so, and woke up around 5am, a good half hour before the alarm went off. I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, so I just got up and got myself ready. Typical bagel, banana, and coffee pre-race breakfast, and after one final check of the weather, I went upstairs to decide what to wear. I was considering wearing a long-sleeved tech shirt and shorts, since it wasn't supposed to be terribly warm, but ended up going with a tank top and my running skirt, and I'm so glad I did, because it was warm enough (mid-50s) that I would have really overheated in a long-sleeved shirt.
Waiting around the house, I was feeling so nervous, but as soon as I got in the car and was on my way, I felt better. I don't do well with waiting.
Got to the race expo a few minutes later than I had planned on, and went straight to bag check, since the line was pretty long. After that, I had time for a bathroom break, and then had to head right out to the starting line, as there was only about 5 minutes to go.
As turnout was pretty large this year, it took about a full minute for me to cross the mat once we had started. And then once I did cross the mat, I was immediately trapped behind a large group of walkers. I think it's absolutely wonderful for people to walk a half-marathon, but if you're walking, you should line up in the BACK!
Once the road opened up a little, I was finally able to get past the walkers, and stayed to the far left of the pack for a while, even running on the sidewalk for a good portion of the first two miles, to avoid getting trapped again.
The first three miles flew by. I was doing a pretty good job sticking to my planned pace, and it felt really good. Splits were 8:14, 8:19, and 8:16. Mile 4 was a tad fast - 8:07 - but then I backed off a bit for mile 5, which also included a short water stop break - 8:26.
This year's course was completely different from last year's, and that was a really good thing. The course last year was literally one hill after the other - just relentless ups and downs. It wasn't quite as bad this year, but it still had its fair share of hills -
The hill at mile 6 was incredible. It went on for nearly a mile. I honestly don't know how I managed to maintain an 8:08 pace for that mile, because it was almost all uphill. It was a tough one, but surprisingly, it didn't take me that long to recover. I had checked the course elevation last week, and I saw that monster at mile 6, and saw on the race's facebook page that the mile 6 hill went on for nearly a full mile, and I really feel like knowing that in advance made it much less of a challenge for me. After getting up the hill, I stopped for a short walk break at the next water stop, and due to that, mile 7 came in at 8:40.
I was starting to feel a little tired at the 8-mile mark, and was giving myself constant pep talks to try to keep my energy up. I considered taking a gel, but I couldn't really stomach the thought, and I've never taken in any kind of fuel during a 13-mile run, so decided today wasn't going to be the day I tried something new, so no gel for me.
Mile 8 and 9 were a tad fast - 8:00, 8:12 - but since we were approaching the final miles, I felt ok about pushing it just a little bit. And I was forced to slow down a bit during mile 10, anyway, as that mile included the last big hill of the course. Came up that hill slowly, and finished mile 10 in 8:34, and then got to the most awful part of the course, and the most awful part of any race I've ever run.
We had to cross a bridge to get back over to the city, and they routed us over a sidewalk, which was only wide enough for one person, and which was closed in on both sides by concrete barriers and fences. So we were forced to run single file. And I was forced to slow down to a 9:00 pace, since that was the pace of the three people running directly in front of me.
I. Was. Pissed. Here I was, at mile 11, ready to crank it up and finish the last few miles as fast as I could, and I couldn't move!!!! It was the worst feeling. And to add insult to injury, as we finally, finally came off the sidewalk (almost half a mile later), we had to run down a ramp with two switchbacks, so I still couldn't start to run fast, as I was concerned I'd hurt myself flying around the corners.
When I got the bottom of that stupid ramp, I RAN! I probably ran way too fast - I saw some sub-7s on my Garmin - but I was so angry about getting caught up on that bridge, I didn't care. And I clearly made up for any lost time, as I ended up finishing mile 11 in 8:02. I'm still angry, though - nobody should be forced to run single file in a race. That's just plain wrong.
Anyway, we were now back in the city and heading to the finish, and I was getting really, really tired, but my music was keeping me going. I knew at this point that the 1:48 wasn't going to happen, but I wasn't about to let that slow me down. Mile 12 - 8:17.
At this point, I was really digging deep to find the energy to keep up a good pace, but the crowds were increasing, and I knew I had a PR for sure, so I managed to finish mile 12 in exactly 8 minutes.
As I turned the corner for the last .1 mile, I took my headphones off and gathered up every last bit of energy I had for a final kick to the finish, and was SO glad to be done.
Got my medal, called Scott, grabbed some food, stretched, and headed for home.
It was a tough race, but a good race, and I ran it well, and I'm really proud of myself. I didn't reach that ultimate goal of 1:48, but I set a PR by 3 minutes and 16 seconds, so I am thrilled!
Scott was fabulous, as always, and let me do as much relaxing as possible when I got home - until we had to bring the boys for swim class in the afternoon, anyway. And we had a great celebratory dinner of lobster, baked potatoes, salad, and champagne, with fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert.
And now I'm exhausted, and am hauling my tired self off to bed.
Final stats -
1:50:09 - 8:25 pace
107 out of 764 in my age group
392 out of 1839 overall
Thanks for one last hurrah, lucky hat : )
Great job out there!! overall I think it was a great event! See ya there next year!
Posted by: Shawn | May 04, 2009 at 06:08 AM
Phew! I might break 2 hours for lobster :-) Great run!! Congrats on the PR too! I wholeheartedly agree with you that having to run single file across the bridge was classless, but they will learn. Well done!!
Posted by: Wes | May 04, 2009 at 09:43 AM
Great job with the race!
That's just poor planning on the part of the race organizers to allow something like that to happen to the course.
Make sure you find a nice place for that retired hat.
Posted by: Chad in the AZ Desert | May 04, 2009 at 03:57 PM