One week ago I ran the P.F. Chang's Half Marathon....not the Marathon. Ya know what, after 4 weeks of PT and 8 or so weeks of emotional toil, I'm finally OK with that.
My Garmin ended up going on the fritz the last 3 miles, so the info captured was not accurate, so I'm not uploading it. However, I'm here to summarize the events....long story short, I finished without any pain....mission accomplished! Now here are some of the details of the day.
Saturday, a group of us decided to go down to the expo together. This group consisted of Peter, my brother, and Jeff. First order of business, switch from the full to the half. We grabbed our yellow bibs (signifying the full) and were instructed to the "coral change" booth to pick a half coral we would be comfortable with. Jeff and I were torn between the 1:47 coral or the 1:50 coral. The woman operating the booth, well how should I say this........let's just say I hope she doesn't give motivational speeches on the weekend. In more ways than one she told me I was crazy for even thinking of running the full and "sure I was nursing an injury and that's why I was dropping down to the half". Thanks for the pep talk coach, keep up the good work!
Anyway, we grabbed the free T-shirt and headed for some SWAG! I love an expo of this size, and I love watching newbies looking for the holy grail to give them a competitive advantage the next day. However, any experienced runner knows not to try something new on race day, whether it's clothing, shoes or nutrition. That's what training is for, and this stage of the game you're just asking for trouble. Anyway, due to time constraints we could not spend a tone of time but we were able to get a taste.
Race morning, I decided to go down with Jeff. I drove to his house and his wife was nice enough to give us a lift to the warm tent....thanks again! Temps were very mild this mornin...chilly but not unbearable. Many people have mixed feelings on the warm tent, but I love it because.....a) Warmth on even the mildest of temps just feels good on race day b) Dedicated Port-O-Potties c) Atmosphere...I'm a people watcher and you combine that with hundreds of other people doing the same ritualistic things and it makes for a great time.
I was able to catch up with my new running BFF Melynda and Leia, her cousin-in-law. Unfortunately, I learned that a poorly timed stomach bug had forced Peter to drop out the night before, and I never ended up seeing my brother.
Around 8am, we headed down to the start to dump our gear and head to our coral, which by the way ended up being coral 5 after little miss motivational talked us out of coral 4. By the way, there are 30 corals in the half marathon...it's a HUGE race!
After dropping our gear with the UPS trucks, we (along with 25,000 others) headed for our coral. This was a journey in and of itself. The UPS trucks were right outside coral 25, so we headed east towards the front to find ours. We opted for side streets to avoid the main congestion. Finally, we found it and wormed our way in just in time for the national anthem. We managed to take a few pics, which do not do justice to the crowds involved!
Being at the front is great, you don't have to wait 40 minutes just to start. I remember in '06 when it took me that long just to start. Anyway, I had told Jeff that I wanted to keep things slow the first mile or so, this is really hard to do with race adrenaline going. We managed to stay at a 9-9:15 for the first mile. Once I got my legs under me, we picked it up a bit.
So much for chilly, the sun was up in full force and I could feel it. I opted for no additional clothing such as arm warmers and I was glad. By mile 3, I was officially hot...not just warm. I could see that Jeff was burnin up too. There was only one thing to do to help this situation....begin dumping water on yourself. Luckly, mile three was water station time. One for internal, one for external. There, that should help.
It did, water combined with a slight breeze lowered the core temp just a bit. Headed back down McDowell, I tried to get into some sort of stride and pace, but I was remeinded of how difficult this can be in a race of this size. I'd find myself in a zone and then have to slow down or dodge someone. Oh well, adapting to your environment is the name of the game in life and racing. Around mile 4, we passed an old guy that had a T-shirt that said "82 and still running".....rock on...I hope that's me someday. Then around mile 6, I was demoralized by the sight of a guy carrying what looked like 1/3 of a telephone pole on his shoulder. Jeff pointed him out and he had to RUN to catch up with him (that's right run to catch up with the guy carrying a pole).
We continued with the same recipe every 2nd or third water stop to keep us cool....one for internal one for external. I knew that my friends Jessica and Trudy were going to be at mile 8, so this provided a great mental chunk. Just make it to 8 and you'll see a friendly face. Indeed, I did and I'm reminded of what a boost to the morale this is. Thanks!
Just before this Jeff mentioned during a water break that his own stomach problems that he battled with the days prior to had done more damage than he first thought. He stated that his body was close to running on empty. Bummer! Ok, there were a number of times in which Jeff had provided words of encouragement to me when I was struggling, especially the last 7 weeks. It looked like I was gonna need to be the one to help him through if needed. However, I know Jeff and I knew that his own mind would push him pretty far, he is strong mentally!
We slowed the pace just a little and made sure to stop for water and fuel when provided. The impending rolling hills between mile 9-11 did not make things any easier but we managed to battle through. Coming out of the zoo area you can begin to see ASU and you know the end is near. Coming across the Mill avenue bridge, your greeted by a sea of people lining the streets, and again provides the encouragement needed to finish strong. I imagine that this is what all 26.2 miles look like for the NYC marathon....that would be AWESOME! The downfall is trying to pick out familiar faces among the sea of people. I was fortunate enough to spot my family around the 13 mile marker...thanks!
Jeff and I finished in 2:00 flat. The key word being finished, for me anything else was gravy. The other joy of running a race of this size is finding family at the end. I'd estimate 100,000+ people in a concentrated area makes for....good times.
I was able to pick up my gear, find my fam and see my brother finish his first half marathon...I'm very proud! Unfortunately, I was unable to see my friends Melynda and Leia finish their first half. But they did, and I'm proud of them as well.
The road to recovery is a long one, and this was the first step. I was able to run 13.1 miles with no pain. I've finished my PT and I'm ready to take on a whole new set of challenges and adventures this year!
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