YMCA South Mountain 1/2 Marathon - a tale of epic proportions

Pre-race

A great race on a beautiful morning. Spouse and the kids hung out at the starting line with me for a little while, collecting goodies from all sponsors, eating cliff bars and bananas, and then headed out to stake out a good 1st viewing spot. I had about 20 minutes before the gun so I hit the restrooms, only to find a LONG line for the ladies. I decided to take my chance in the line; better to lose a couple minutes up front than have to wait in a porta-john line 4 miles down the road. The line went quickly, but even still when I came out I could see the count down and I only had 33 seconds before the gun. So I jogged to the very back of the line, shedding my sweatshirt and ditching it in the gravel, and trying to put my ear-buds in. The gun went off, and the shuffling to the starting line began. By the time I made it to the starting line I was already 1:33 behind. Too bad we didn't have timing chips.

My strategy was to keep it slow for the first 4-5 miles then get into a comfortable pace. There is so much adreneline at the beginning it's hard to keep your excitment abated and not speed up. So that's what I did. However, I was so paranoid about not getting carried away, I think I held back a little too much. More of that later. It was fun to come around a bend and see Spouse and the kids cheering me on. Even #3 was clapping!

During this slow section I kept thinking how diverse the running crowd is. If I've learned one thing about runners it is that you can't judge performance by appearance. There was this girl at the starting line looking pretty serious about the race, totally decked out in hard-core running gear, doing lunges and high knee kicks. She was thin and muscley, totally fit. I thought "That's a real runner there. Not a poser like me." Ha ha ha. I came in 15 minutes ahead of her. Eat that, skinny girl! But then, I was beat by 89 year old Erik Johnson and a crippled woman.

The first 3 miles were torture. So slow. So crowded. So boring. I just wanted to get things going. Around mile 4 I couldn't stand it any longer and just let it go. At about mile 5.5 the race leaders started passing us on the way back (this was a there and back course). This was hugely motivating - especially since the 4th person to pass on the way back was a woman! The turn around was at 6.5 miles. I felt really good so I thought, what the heck, and increased my pace a bit more. I ran through all the water stations, just throwing the water in my face and catching some in my mouth. At about mile 8 Spouse handed me some gatorade, which was super helpful, because the race only provided water, no energy.

I still felt really good and when I passed the 10 mile marker I realized that I had held back too much at the beginning because I still had a ton of energy. So I picked up my pace a bit more, no sense leaving anything behind. I was able to keep up this faster pace through the last 2 mile stretch which was all uphill. Spouse and the kids passed me on the road, honking and yelling which made me so excited to get to the finish line. As I came to the crest of the last hill, I could see the finish line and the timer and my heart fell. I had really wanted to come in under two hours (I know for all you serious runners, Daisy, McCall....whoever else, this seems like a wimpy goal. But for me it was a challenge, yet acheivable). I thought, "Oh well, I guess my faster pace really wasn't that fast afterall." The timer said 2:14. I wasn't wiped out; in fact I felt great! I was a little bummed because I felt like I could have run faster those first few miles and acheived my goal.

After a few gatorades, and bananas, we started heading for the car when I heard over the loud speaker, "Half marathon runners, remember to subtract ten minutes from your time." Whoo hoo! I had forgotten that we had started 10 minutes after the 5K on the same timer. Even though I still hadn't made my goal, at least this was much better! The official results were posted yesterday and my official time was 2:03. I was 22nd in my age division out of 60 and 295 overall out of 589.

Spouse was juggling three kids and trying to get to four different viewing points so he only mangaed to take these two, before and after, pictures. Not like I'd post pictures of me running anyway. And for those readers who've been with me since last year, you'll be happy to notice that I finally got some new running clothes! Thank you Target!