OktobeRun Half Marathon (10.24.15)

pre-race selfie

This race wasn't like a normal race for me. Usually I'm nervous leading up to it. The date of the race crept up on me and I didn't get my normal level of nervous.  For the 3 weeks prior to the race, I didn't train like I should have. I knew this would be bad. I just didn't make the time and commitment to go on runs. I ran fewer times in those weeks than I have in a long time.

I picked Beth up on the way.  We got parked. We got to the start. I still wasn't nervous. We didn't stretch. I even forgot to get the satellites located on my Garmin. Luckily they just located as they said start.  This mental part was so different than other races. I'm usually so nervous. I'd even be nervous for a 5k.   I never even looked at the race course in advance. We were quite a few miles in before I learned it was an out and back course. I said good thing I didn't know that in advance because I hate out and back courses.

We started out just behind the 2:00 pacer even though we meant to be in front of her.  Then we were bottle-necked and it was hard to pace ourselves or pass. Our first mile was slower. Then a little later we passed her and it was much better and we could get into our own grove which was 8:40-8:45 pace. We held that for quite awhile.

There were maybe half a dozen water stops. I don't know what mile markers they were at. After the race, I tried to look it up and it wasn't posted. (It mentions there were 7 but one you stop at twice and I think I stopped at it once unless they were counting that as the same water station.) I didn't get enough water because I was feeling salt on my face around mile 9.

Up until mile 9, I was thinking how we should definitely do a full marathon. But then after that my hips were really bothering me. I could tell I was starting to run with a limp. I couldn't open my stride as far as normal. Also the top of my foot was killing me like something was rubbing constantly on it. (Later I looked and some layers of skin were rubbed right off.) My right heel hurt because I had a rock under my heel for about 4 miles of the race. The ball of my left foot hurt for about 3 miles during the middle of the race.  My sunglasses kept almost flying off my head. I wasn't wearing them since it wasn't sunny at all. Then I went to wear them and they were quite foggy so I couldn't wear them right either.  On the last water stop, I drank the entire cup of water (which wasn't much) but then my stomach felt weird from all the water.  I also complained about gaining a few lbs in the last few weeks. I was telling myself my run wouldn't have sucked so bad without the extra weight. (haha) OK that might be it for my complaints.

It was an out and back but it wasn't that bad.  Sometimes we ran on the shoulder of a road, sometimes a paved trail, and sometimes a gravel trail. I wasn't a fan of all the dust from the gravel and I couldn't really run beside Beth. A narrow spot on the path was packed down and easier to run on and if you were 1 person over from that there was a lot more loose gravel that caused you to slide around.

The last 4 miles were pretty rough. I said we just needed a 9:20 pace for them. Clearly we didn't need that good since I didn't get that and still beat the goal time by a minute. I just know some races are long on my GPS and I didn't want us to miss a goal time because of that.  They had mile markers (that I noticed) starting at mile 3. At each mile my garmin had increased by 1.01 miles so I did predict we'd finish at 13.24 miles and we did.  I wasn't taking any chances since the last race had mile markers BEFORE my garmin turned over to that mile and still ended at 13.25!

Mile 11 was faster than 10 because we caught up to someone who was asking what times I was shouting out (quarter mile splits) and then we talked about our goal times and previous races.  I did most of the talking! With 3/4 of a mile to go, Beth pulled ahead. I couldn't open my stride to go any faster so I just let her pull ahead but she was so close for so long. I'd say she was 20 feet ahead about half that time.  But she must have given an extra good kick at the end. Even though it was an out and back I hadn't paid attention to the course so I wasn't sure when to start my kick. We rounded one bend and there was no finish in site so I didn't give a kick. Then I rounded another bend and the finish line was about 100 ft away. Oops. I started my kick late.

of course the post-race picture has me stopping my garmin

Beth did finish just enough before me to pull out her phone and turn around to get a few pictures of me finishing. I didn't ask her to do that!  If I had pulled ahead of her, I was going to do the same for her! Now I'm glad I sucked worse than she did so I finished second.

post-race selfie (Finish is in the background on purpose)

Sal and Gio came to the finish. We talked for a little bit, took a post-race selfie, and went on our way.  She just left with Sal so I had to get to the parking garage on my own. I walked only a little out of the way and entered the garage and walked around 3 sides of it before seeing the car.  I will say I was slightly distracted since I was face-timing with Ella.   Right after the race she called me too. I couldn't hear her over the speakers at the race so I said bye. As I was hanging up she started crying so she called right back. She was so sad I got off the phone.  We talked briefly but I had to go. I couldn't hold a phone, my bag, my food, and my drink.

Official results are in and my time is 1:58:51. I don't know how my garmin is so far off from that.  I really hope there are some race photos. I saw someone taking them at the turnaround but his camera flashed for every person in front of us but there was no flash for us! I'm hoping he took one.

a comparison!

Race pictures are posted and here are a two.

 Look we are having a blast at the halfway point.