Chapter 3: 13.1 Miles Between Me and My First Medal
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| Gina and I right before the race |
The course was a lollipop type, so that you ran 2.5 miles out on the road that circles the island along the lake, then turn left and run through the inner trails and roads, then come back out onto the road for the last 2.5 miles. The 5.7 mile run wound through the inner trails for 3.2 miles and then finished on that same 2.5 miles of road. This was a really neat feature because at the 24 minute mark (about 2 miles into the race for me) I got to see the first finishers of the other race go running by. They were FLYING! It was really neat to see, and we were all cheering for each other and smiling and having a great time watching the people in the other races. I even got to see Gina go by after I made my turn up into the trail section!
At the three mile marker there was the first water station. I didn’t need any water since I was using my Camelback fanny pack, but I took the opportunity to drop a cup on my head and take an energy gel since I was at about 35 minutes into the course at this point. This was the first time I walked at all on the course that day, and really that was pretty good for not training well at all. Oh I forgot to mention- luckily my Pandora app started working at about the 1.5 mile mark. Whew.
The trail part lasted for about two miles I would say, then every once in a while we would be on a road. We passed the airport around mile 5.5 and there was another water station- but no water! Come on now I’m not that slow!! What really happened is this- the volunteers at this station decided it would be easier to distribute the water in the full Dasani water bottles they had instead of pouring those into the little cups and handing them out like they were supposed to. Luckily, my Camelback saved the day. Took another energy gel here. Also took a picture of the airport as I ran by! I should also mention that mile 5-6 was my fastest split time of 12:39. I passed Stacey’s mom around this time (I can’t remember exactly but I think it was shortly after the airport) and she told me Stacey was just up ahead. Maybe I could catch her and we could finish the race together!
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| Airport |
The course went through some more trails here, then came out on a road that wound through the inner island with some really nice houses on it! I was amazed. When Gina and I had been walking through town earlier, we saw a reality place that had houses advertised- from $400,000 to $650,000, and none of those were even as CLOSE to as nice as these were. These were pretty much mansions. At one of the houses the lady who lived there was standing out front her house with a hose offering the runners drinks. I thought that was pretty neat.
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| Awesome House |
The next part of the course took us behind the backside of the Fort, I got a picture of the fort itself and of me running by it. I'm kind of a ham :)
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| Backside of Fort with Cannon |
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| Me running by |
Between miles 7-8 I came up over a hill and saw the prettiest view of the harbor and lake ever! It was inspiring, and actually made me stop in my tracks. I took a few pictures, and then some people that were also in the race and taking pictures offered to take a picture of me with that background!
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| Although this is pretty...it was prettier in person :) |
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| Hamming it up again |
This is also the point in the race that I got a little sad that this was only a half marathon and not a full one. I wished it could go on forever and that the pretty views would never end. I was on top of the world!
Then mile 9 came. Oh dear god, mile 9. There was nothing particular about this mile that made it tough- no terrible hills, (no worse than the rest of the course so far) no bad winds, nothing. We were back in the trail system now, and I don’t know if not having much to look at was psyching me out or what, but this mile was terrible. I walked a ton of it. I came in at 15:00 even for a split time even though the mile before that I did 15:11 after stopping for about two minutes to take pictures.
Mile 10- So happy to be in the double digits finally! There were a lot of downhill portions to this part of the race so I was really happy to be able to let my body coast a little. Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying attention to my form on the downhills anymore, so I was pounding down them too hard, and I ended up stressing my left knee and left foot arch. These wouldn’t bother me during the race, but afterward they were quite painful. I had to go upstairs “on all fours” for a while to not put as much weight on my knee. In fact, the knee and foot arch both still twinge a little, two weeks after the race. Oh I should mention that coming into this mile was my worst split of the race- 15:21. I came through at roughly 2:20:00. However, I realized that I only had 3.1 miles to go, and if I could run them decently, I may still be able to finish in less than 3 hours, which was my goal at the start of the race. Of course I wasn’t really planning to take so many pictures, but hey.
I made it to mile 11 in 13:46, which was a significant improvement over mile 10’s split. I thought it may still be possible to finish under 3 hours at this time…but I couldn’t keep it up. I just hadn’t trained enough, and I came through mile 12 in 14:36. I did get a really good picture of Arch rock on the way back since by that point I knew I wasn’t coming through in under 3 hours anymore.
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| Arch Rock |
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| Arch Rock a Little Closer |
At 12.9 miles, my phone died. It had told me it had a low battery around mile 8, so I got a good run out of it. Running a GPS for CardioTrainer and running Pandora is pretty taxing on a battery. So, all I had to listen to for my last 0.2 miles was myself. It actually worked out well because there were still spectators out (and other runners cooling down by running back out on the course), so I got to hear them cheering. It made me happy to hear them, but at the same time, I felt a little like …well, not like I didn’t deserve it, because for God’s sakes I just ran 13 miles…but maybe like…it was a mercy congrats? Kind of like when you tell the slow kid in class his drawing of a donkey is really good but in reality it looks like a cloud? It’s hard to explain. I was still appreciative of the support and felt like I deserved it...idk.
At 0.1 left, I saw the finish line and audibly said “Oh thank fucking Jesus.” Some people heard me and laughed.
So, I never caught up with Stacey, but I did see her at the finish line waiting for me! She was cheering my name and I tried to “sprint” though the finish line like I do at shorter races, but I’m sure I looked like I was waddling more than sprinting. Nate got a picture of me coming through the finish line and I look like I’m going to puke-
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| Yay I'm finished! |
I got my medal, and my banana, and some water…and walked for another few steps before taking the time to stretch out while scarfing down said banana. There was goose poop everywhere- something that earlier in the day when Gina and I were stretching before the race I took the time to avoid- but at this point I just said “Fuck it, it will wash off” and stretched. I had bought Stacey and I matching necklaces that were a circle with 13.1 around the edges and a runner girl in the center, and I gave her hers and put on my own. Then we posed for a pic together with our medals on.
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| I found her! |
Final time: 3 hours, 7 minutes, 51 seconds (chip time).
Tune in tomorrow for the last part of my half marathon run down, the aftermath and how I feel about my experience!
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