My second official half marathon is done. I will do my best to re-cap the days events. I am not sure that I will be able to do it the same justice that Abby & Brenda did for the Boston Marathon (Congrats by the way!) but I will do my best. So here we go.
The day started off for me a little after 3:00 am. I had managed to get to bed Friday night around 10, so I guess my body figured that I had enough sleep. I attempted to go back to sleep with no success. So after laying in bed thinking about the day before me I decided to get up. Once I was up I jumped online and checked email. To my surprise there was one from Chris. He had also woken around 3:00 am, the life of a 3rd shifter like myself, and wanted to know if I wanted to have him drop me off at the starting point for the run. I had been planning on having my wife drop me off and catch a ride home with Chris, since he was to be handing out finisher medals. I took him up on his offer. He is now my wife's Hero, since it kept her from having to get up on one of the few days she gets to sleep in. After all of my travel plans were arranged I decided to grab a bite to eat. Nothing too harsh, just a bagel and some coffee followed by plenty of water.
Chris arrived around 6:15 am and we were off. It probably only took us around 20 minutes to reach the nearest drop off point for the start of the race. Once I had determined that we were as close as we were going to get, I thanked Chris for the ride and hopped out of the car. It was only a small walk to the starting area, which was easy to find following the sea of runners heading that way. Once I made it to the starting area I began to look for Scotty Z who was also running. After a phone call to his cell, which his wife answered, and a little luck I spotted him. We then made our way to our starting corral. I was happy that we would be starting in corral B. That would mean fewer runners ahead of us.
By the time we made it to our starting area there was probably only around 20 minutes before the start. As the time went by more and more runners entered our area. With about 5 minutes left it was time to fire up the iPod and get in a running mindset.
Then we were off. I had made it my plan to head into the first couple of miles easy, knowing that we would be running through the hills of Iroquois Park after about 3 miles. With this plan I had opted to start off with more laid back tunes to get me started. So I let Eddie Vedder tell me the story of Crazy Mary as I headed into my first mile.
Miles 1-3 seemed to go by almost effortlessly with an average 8:45 pace. To my surprise Scotty Z was staying at my side. In the past he has had the urge to pull ahead, only to fade later. Around mile 3 we entered the park, for what would be close to 3 miles. I found it almost fitting that Hells Bells began to fill my head as we entered. I knew that this would be my test. I had not done a lot of hill training, but figured I was ready.
Miles 4-6 did not seem that bad. At some point through the park I lost Scotty Z. I was a little bit surprised when I looked back and he was not there anymore, since where he runs and trains is all hills. As I exited the park I had Axl Rose welcoming to the jungle. I felt pretty good at this point, still averaging around an 8:45 pace. The park was mostly shaded, so the higher temps didn't seem to be bothering me.
Miles 7-9 were nice and flat. They took me through lots of spectators supporting not only the ones they came to see, but all runners who passed. That alone makes you want to keep going. When we had started the run, I had noticed that we were close to one of the Marathon pacer's who would be running at an 8:47 pace. My goal was to keep him in site. As we neared the 8 mile mark I found myself running right behind him. I felt like I was holding back. So I decided to go ahead. As we entered Churchill Downs I still felt pretty good. The only thing that sucked was that we had to enter and exit through a tunnel. The tunnels had downhills to enter and uphills to exit, as they went under the track. As we exited the last tunnel I could feel some fatigue.
Mile 10. As I reached mile 10 I could feel myself working harder and slowing some. The pacer that I had passed earlier had now caught and passed me. I told myself as I passed the 10 mile mark that I only had a 5k left to run. Unfortunately that did not help. A little after the 10 mile mark I had to walk. I only walked for about 30 seconds, but I still had to walk. The 30 second walk did wonders. I was off again.
Miles 11-13.1 were some of the hardest miles I think I have run in a long time. They rank right up there with the first half mile I ran over a year ago after a 10 year vacation from running. I ran as far a I could before having to stop and walk again. I think I had made it to the 12 mile mark this time. I almost feel like I should have never let myself walk the first time. After walking for close to another 30 second I was off again. The pace had gradually gotten slower. As I rounded the last turn and headed for the home stretch I was greated by the cheers of many onlookers. No they weren't there for me, they were there for every runner who had chosen to take on the task of running 13.1 or 26.2 that day. There cheers were enough to get me over the line. I finished in 2:02:46. Missing my 2 hour goal by 2:46. Oh well.
As I crossed the line I immediately heard my name being called. It was Chris. He handed me a power aid and told me that he had been moved from Medal distribution to time spotter. I then headed into the sea of finishers to receive my Medal and grab some much needed food. There was an abundance of sport drinks, bagels, bananas, and granola bars to be had. I then headed back to the finish to wait for Scotty Z. He finished his run about 10 minutes behind me.
I then walked through the medal area with Scotty Z. He then headed off to meet his wife and head home. I hung out and watched all of the people finishing the race, while waiting for Chris to get done. After about an hour he was done and we were on our way home.
I can not say enough about the people who volunteered there time to had out water and all of the other thankless jobs that go along with helping out with an event like this. All I can say is THANK YOU!!
I will be back next year. I think Chris will be running that one with me. I will definatley take the time to do several runs through Iroquois park before that run. I still call this run a success, even though I didn't hit my goal. It just gives me something to strive for. If all goals were that easy to achieve, what would be the point of setting them?
I am sure that my summer will be filled with several runs, so this blog will live on.
Later
