It was a day of ups and downs.  I left my house around 5:30 in a pouring rain, almost got into an accident when two cars had been abandoned in the middle of the highway after colliding in a large puddle and didn't even have their hazard flashers on, then spent 10 minutes in stop-and-go traffic to get to the parking garage.  The rain had started overnight (when I went to bed, there was thunder and lightning), and continued as I waited in the PoP line.  I didn't have much time for any sort of warmup run as there weren't really enough PoPs and some people were still in line when the race started, though I had managed to get to my corral.

With a temperature of 57º, being wet was uncomfortable, but not awful.  I shed my plastic poncho shortly before crossing the start, running in shorts, a tank top, and sleeves (I'd soon roll down the sleeves only to pull them back up later in the race).  In the days before the race, I toyed with the idea of lining up with the 1:50 pace group, especially as one of the listed pacers was someone I'd run with before whom I considered to be very good at pacing.  Unfortunately, the pacing assignments got shuffled and I wound up with two pacers I didn't know.  Even more unfortunately, they weren't good.  My hope was that running with pacers I could just focus on staying with the group and not worry about trying to keep a steady 8:24 pace.  After 1½ miles I took a quick look at my watch and found the pacers had us going at a sub-8:00 pace, so I let them go.  At the 2-mile mark I was averaging 8:11 and they were well out of sight, so I decided to try keeping a 1:50 pace on my own.

The temperature stayed fairly constant and the wind wasn't a factor, but the rain kept falling - not heavy, but steady - though the humidity was noticeable and unpleasant.  The opening miles were kind of crowded as we tried to work our way through the more optimistic runners who started near the front but ran slowly.  There were occasional slow-downs as people tried to avoid large puddles (much like what I encountered on my drive), which seemed pointless to me.  By the time we got to Liberty State Park in mile 4, the puddles were frequent and large, and I just ran through them even as others ran wide around them on the grass.

Through 6 miles I was still on 1:50 pace and doing OK, but the wheels fell off in miles 7 & 8, thanks in large part to two steep climbs up bridges over a highway and over some RR tracks.  Miles 7- 9 were the worst for me.  About halfway through mile 7 I'd managed to swallow a big gulp of air while taking water and though I managed to burp much of it back up, I felt sick to my stomach for quite a while.  At one point in mile 9 I had a really weird feeling:  it seemed as if I was just bouncing/gliding along, but I wasn't lightheaded or euphoric - just felt a little out of touch. The feeling went away, but came back more briefly a couple of times.  I'd been drinking regularly, so I don't think it was dehydration, but who knows?

The 3:50 marathon pace group caught up with me in mile 10 and I figured that would be a 1:55 half.  I managed to pick up the pace and run with them for a while, but ever so slowly they pulled away from me.  I was dragging again in mile 12, but happily mile 13 started with a long, gradual downhill stretch, which kept me going for a while.  I got through the finish and found myself taking short, wobbly steps, which alarmed me a bit, but after a while I was OK and walking normally.  I got a medal and a heat blanket, but oddly there was no food available to the finishers, so I just headed for my car and went home.  Halfway back to my house the skies cleared and the sun came out.

My official time was 1:57:26.  This was my 26th distinct half marathon in NJ and my 43rd half overall, but just the first time I'd run an entire half in the rain (though there were plenty of races where it rained part of the time).  I have to admit my willpower ran low a couple of times in this race, but I was able to rally myself both times, though I'm not sure how.  Of my 43 halves, this was my 11th fastest, my 9th best on an age-graded basis, and my 19th time going sub-2.

Fred, do you think the POP issues are from being a new race? Granted, at this point, not sure how RDs don't know order lots of POPs, the bulk are being used in the 30 minutes pre-race by lots of people. Do you think the weird feeling was blood sugar related? I've had that happen a few times when I run after work, it's rare it happens in the morning.

HCK - Yeah, I definitely think this being a new race played a role.  NYRR has far more POPs for smaller races than this one.  Also, the lack of food for HM finishers was glaring (I spoke afterwards with a reporter who ran & covered the race and he said they told him about the thousands of apples and bananas that had been purchased, so someone must have dropped the ball).  I did take a gel a couple minutes before that weird feeling, so maybe it was a sugar rush?

"Hopefully Fred doesn't mind, link to his race report."  Thank you, actually.  Though the irony is if I did mind, I would not be able to say so, since you put this in the Forum.

Congratulations Fred

Congrats! Tough day but you did great considering.

 

 My official time was 1:57:26.  This was my 26th distinct half marathon in NJ and my 43rd half overall..

That boggles my mind. It's got to be some kind of record!

I left my house around 5:30 in a pouring rain, almost got into an accident when two cars had been abandoned in the middle of the highway after colliding in a large puddle and didn't even have their hazard flashers on, then spent 10 minutes in stop-and-go traffic to get to the parking garage. 

You could've turned around and went home and no one would've blamed you.

As for the weird feeling, I get that when my blood sugar level get wonky. It mostly happens when I jog later in the morning but did happen in a race once, at CIM.

As it is, half marathons are no joke. Sure, it's half of a marathon but racing for 13.1 miles is a tall task. Kudos to you for toughing it out during those late race dark moments.

 LRB - Thanks.  As to blood sugar, I may have taken a gel a few minutes before that weird feeling, so maybe I had a brief sugar rush?

Not usually. You may have been slightly tardy on taking it and your level began to dip, but then again, I'm not you nor a doctor, so you can dismiss that entire thought. lol

Seriously though, a lot of it has to do with the timing of the gel (or pre-run nutrition) and/or effort. When it occurs, if I back off on the effort soon enough I can sometimes ride it out, other times, I have to stop running altogether and walk for a few.

Dave - thanks, and yes, bad pacers are frustrating (and worse than no pacers).

LRB - For now I'm just going to go with it being a one-time thing that was aggravated (or caused) by the conditions and not worry about it unless it become a more frequent occurrence.