March Madness Half Marathon

Looking around the gymnasium as we all got ready (nobody went to the start line till the last minute), I could tell this was the most serious "race" I've ever entered. So many Boston jackets, so much Ironman garb. Word on the street is that this half-- dubbed the hardest in the midwest-- is a tune-up that many run to train for Boston. I knew I'd be in the back before we even lined up, and that's ok. I'm not really competing with anyone with myself.

Ben and I rode out with teammates Julie and Gerrerd and met Julie's dad Tom there, and it was great having folks to chat with before the race. We took a while to get together, though, and were the last ones to line up at the start, which was fine with me. We were still sort of getting situated there and sipping water from our paper cups when we were all startled by the gun. Yikes!

It took a while to get over the start line, and there weren't chips, but I didn't mind. I looked behind me and there were maybe 4-5 people, we really started in the back. We started faster than I'd trained all year. Soon I knew better and backed off, and before mile 1 Julie, Gerrerd and Tom were off in the distance. I settled in to the 10:40 neighborhood and was happy that I was banking some time before the hills-- knowing you're never supposed to bank time on a marathon, but this is just a half right? The hills were still in front of us and I'll do what I can when I can.

Around mile 3 I connected with Vivian, a woman had the flu all week and was running sick. She was slightly faster than me, so it was a nice push to try to stay with her and we talked about dogs and horses and how huge the houses and yards were out there. At mile 4 we saw the leader coming back the other way towards his mile 10 and joked about just turning around and jumping on. The hills started rolling bigger and bigger, and by mile 6 we were at the first of the 6 "signed" hills-- hills so big they had signs posted with their names. I ran until it was faster to walk. We were keeping a pretty steady pace and few people came around us.

I stayed with Vivian till the Mile 10 hill, where I started walking and she ran on. I hadn't really watched my pace since mile 3- too busy chatting- but I knew walking some of the hills was probably killing the pace. I didn't really mind the hills, they just slowed me a bit. At mile 11, a man shouting out times said 2:07:40. Some not-so-quick math in my head, and though his split was probably not spot on I figured I had 12:00, then 2:00, then finally settled on 22:00 to run the last 2 miles, with one signed hill still in front of me. I can do this. Then I hit the last signed/major hill and it wasn't that bad.

That last mile, I emptied what I had left. Nobody passed me, I probably passed 6-7 people. Came across Ben just before the finish and turned the corner to the line. As I approached, Julie and Gerrerd were waiting there cheering, and I made out the clock... 2:30:12 and counting. Yarg, why do I always do this? But then again, it probably took a minute to get over the starting line, so I'll take it. And though the squats and glutes I've done lately clearly helped me on those hills and it wasn't impossible by any stretch, it was a hard course.

2:30:46.
Not bad for a second trimester "race."