I really wasn't intending to be a sandbagger when I wrote about how little mileage I've done "preparing" for my half marathon. The race pace efforts must have done the trick, even though I was only squeaking out a few miles at a time slightly slower than I ended up averaging for the race.
Sister Jenny (makes her sound patient and saintly, doesn't it? She is :)) is very familiar with Conway, a city she lived and worked in for many years, so I didn't worry much about directions to the race. I picked her up for the 30ish mile drive a little after 6:30am Saturday. Plenty of time to find the race, park, use porta potties, pick up packets, and warm up. Pulling off the interstate and into town, Jenny may have realized that the Conway she was so familiar with was circa 1999. It has grown and changed, and despite having lots of opportunities to stop and pull out my phone's GPS, I still let her take us in concentric circles around the race site, until finally I pulled over in a closed pharmacy parking lot to use the bushes (hope that wasn't caught on camera!). At least I could check the potty off my prerace list.
With less than 30 minutes until race time, we made it to a parking spot and found the packet pick up, except we weren't on the list anywhere. Seems we weren't the only relay team with this problem. But after a little more stressing, I finally just wrote the race off as a long training run, and calmed down a bit. We jogged to and from the car for a warm up and finalized our plans of how the chip hand off was going to take place. It occurred to me at the last minute that we could possibly be the first team to hand off in the parking lot just off the race course, and it could be obvious that our plan of me not taking off the timing chip and only faking a hand off could be noticeable. Oh well. I figured I really didn't care too much; as I'd said before, I did pay a hefty registration fee, and I can't understand how the race could be full yet open to VIPs at the same time. The rule book never said I couldn't do the whole race.
With less than 30 minutes until race time, we made it to a parking spot and found the packet pick up, except we weren't on the list anywhere. Seems we weren't the only relay team with this problem. But after a little more stressing, I finally just wrote the race off as a long training run, and calmed down a bit. We jogged to and from the car for a warm up and finalized our plans of how the chip hand off was going to take place. It occurred to me at the last minute that we could possibly be the first team to hand off in the parking lot just off the race course, and it could be obvious that our plan of me not taking off the timing chip and only faking a hand off could be noticeable. Oh well. I figured I really didn't care too much; as I'd said before, I did pay a hefty registration fee, and I can't understand how the race could be full yet open to VIPs at the same time. The rule book never said I couldn't do the whole race.
I decided last minute, literally, that I didn't want to go in the first corral, since it consisted of approximately 15 men and 2 women. It said 7:00 pace and under, which I was hoping to run, but I wanted more people nearby, and I knew more than that small number would run under 1:32. Plus I fit in slightly better with the slower group, since I wasn't dressed like a real runner. I went for the comfort of short sleeves and knicker tights over the apparently more appropriate clothing of some combination of a tank, arm warmers, gloves, shorts, and maybe compression socks. Thankfully, I think I chose my corral well, but that still didn't keep people from going out way too fast, cutting in front of me on downhills, and me ending up running mostly alone for many miles.
The first 6 miles before the relay "handoff" had a few hills at approximately every 2 miles. I tried not to look at the Garmin, especially the instantaneous (or more appropriately, erroneous) pace, and I managed to only look at it once, in the first mile, which was mostly downhill. Then I looked at every mile beep, and no more. It seemed the odd miles were downhill, and evens were uphill. Especially according to my pace, 1-6: 6:51, 7:10, 6:49, 7:07, 6:41, 7:04. There was no even pacing for me. But I'd rather have an even effort, which it appears I did a little better than pacing.
Right after mile 6 was the relay transition. I was getting a little nervous about it and hoped they wouldn't notice my colored bib which signified my relay status, and I could skip the whole thing and holler to Jenny to go on. In retrospect, that probably wouldn't have worked because they may not have released her from the transition! So I ran up the hill toward her, as she stood waiting, having been given specific instructions on how this would all go down. They volunteers were to help us change the ankle strap so we didn't have to bend down, I learned later. Instead, I went plowing through, and gave her a kind of high five/pull by the hand and said, "come on." One guy called after us something like, "you have to change the band!" and I called back something about keeping on going. With all that commotion, I had plenty of adrenaline, and despite the uphill, ran a 6:46.
Soon after the intersection was a Gu station, which I planned to partake in. I grabbed one, pulled the tab off with my teeth and squirted a large glob into my mouth. Then I realized that despite the instructions from the Gu-giver "water next," there was no water in sight. Or within the next mile. I spit most of the blob out but changed my mind and swallowed more since I had already stickied up my mouth anyway.
I knew larger hills were coming at miles 8, maybe 10, and 12, and 8 was my last over-7, which was 7:05. I never ran with anyone for very long, but I tried to keep my eyes ahead. One younger guy passed me around 9 or 10 with quite a bit of speed, but I kept him in sight. I think he was the relay that beat us. Many times I felt like I must be plodding along at around 8:30 pace, but at each mile beep I was surprised to see a sub 7. Miles 9-11 were 6:44, 6:55, 6:54. By this time I figured I should be averaging under 7 mins/mi, but I didn't think of looking at the data field that showed average pace. Of course!
Mile 12 had the last of the hills, and it was a long but gradual one. I squeaked it out in 6:59, and knew the rest was mostly downhill. You could practically see the finish line from the top of the hill, and it looked a long way away, but I ended with the fastest mile of the day for 13: 6:38. If only it hadn't been .09 miles too long according to my garmin, even given my excellent tangent running :), I may have had a small PR, but instead ran 1:30:52. At least I broke the curse of the 1:35s.
I'm pretty sure my name wasn't called out as I crossed the finish line, but I was a little dizzy from the chilly air, so maybe I just didn't hear it. Jenny nor I were anywhere to be found in the results. Jenny's bib number pulls up some man named Charles in the photos. He actually is wearing the same bib number that she did. My pictures are of me (probably unfortunately), but it congratulates Caliene.
Soon after the intersection was a Gu station, which I planned to partake in. I grabbed one, pulled the tab off with my teeth and squirted a large glob into my mouth. Then I realized that despite the instructions from the Gu-giver "water next," there was no water in sight. Or within the next mile. I spit most of the blob out but changed my mind and swallowed more since I had already stickied up my mouth anyway.
I knew larger hills were coming at miles 8, maybe 10, and 12, and 8 was my last over-7, which was 7:05. I never ran with anyone for very long, but I tried to keep my eyes ahead. One younger guy passed me around 9 or 10 with quite a bit of speed, but I kept him in sight. I think he was the relay that beat us. Many times I felt like I must be plodding along at around 8:30 pace, but at each mile beep I was surprised to see a sub 7. Miles 9-11 were 6:44, 6:55, 6:54. By this time I figured I should be averaging under 7 mins/mi, but I didn't think of looking at the data field that showed average pace. Of course!
Mile 12 had the last of the hills, and it was a long but gradual one. I squeaked it out in 6:59, and knew the rest was mostly downhill. You could practically see the finish line from the top of the hill, and it looked a long way away, but I ended with the fastest mile of the day for 13: 6:38. If only it hadn't been .09 miles too long according to my garmin, even given my excellent tangent running :), I may have had a small PR, but instead ran 1:30:52. At least I broke the curse of the 1:35s.
I'm pretty sure my name wasn't called out as I crossed the finish line, but I was a little dizzy from the chilly air, so maybe I just didn't hear it. Jenny nor I were anywhere to be found in the results. Jenny's bib number pulls up some man named Charles in the photos. He actually is wearing the same bib number that she did. My pictures are of me (probably unfortunately), but it congratulates Caliene.
As scenic as the course actually was, the pictures are most definitely not doing it justice
After a cool down run a mile and a half to the car, some trick-or-treating grabbing of candy at the food table, and forcing my unconfiscated chip onto a timing guy who really didn't know what to do with it, we headed back down south with renewed motivation to do more "track" workouts. Right Jenny?
Happy Halloween! He's a nice dragon.
Pant less dragon: "But Daddy, I'm marking my territory."
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