Race report

It seems like I learned something today, when it rains, bring a pancho.  The day started out crappy, with a steady rain.  Got to the race site, was able to do my 10 minute walk warm-up and stretching under the cover of a pavilon.  Then went out and ran about a mile warm-up.  Got fairly wet during that, but not too bad. Went back to cover and stretched a little more. 

The Start line was a half mile walk up the hill to another pavilon, not accessable by car.  I decided to ditch my running jacket and left a long sleeve shirt on over my running shirt.  Rain had slowed to more of a drizzle, so I figured it wouldn't be too bad. 

I got to the top, had about a half hour to start time, so I stretched some more, went out for a litle jog from the start.  The brainy people running this thing, didn't put any porta pottys up there.  Fortunately for us guys, there were plenty of woods and bushes. I'm not sure what the gals were doing.

So then the rain starts to come down pretty steady again.  I figure, okay not too bad, the 5K will start in less than 10 minutes and we're 5 mins after that.  However, as we get close to 9:00 AM, it's very obvious that they aren't going to start on time.  So we go another 10 mins of standing in the rain and they're getting the 5Kers lined up, great, we're going to get this show on the road.  Well, it seems that there are still a number of runners walking up the hill.  and of course, they weren't smart enough to have someone at the bottom of the hill making people use the up road rather than the down road, so the Race Director is holding up the start until it looks like the road is fairly clear.  Not sure why he didn't send the rangers down in thier golf cart to clear it. 

Well, finally about 9:25, they get the 5Kers off and running.  I decided to peel off my wet shirt (the plan was to run with it for about 3/4 of a mile and then peel it off and toss it to my wife) and leave it up there (mistake).

They did a great job of getting us lined up for the HM.  The beginning of the race was slightly uphill for about a tenth of a mile and then a very good hill heading down.  My plan was to go out slow, not get carried away on the hill and keep my first mile pace to 7:50-8:00. 

The start was pretty smooth, not real congested for the first tenth of a mile and then opened up slightly for the downhill.  At the very bottom of the hill, you make a sharp 90 turn onto the regular park road and lo and behold, there is standing water ( the only passable part is the high crest in the middle and I had swung out wide) and I had to perform a quick high step to go thru about 3 inches of water covering 8-10 feet of road. 

Okay, so I've set the tone for the race, but I'm still relaxed and vowing not to let the weather beat me. 

The first mile I held my pace down to 7:59 (simply amazing, as I tend to panic about people passing me and end up going out too fast, but wait!

Mile 2 says I ran a 7:02, what the F**K, I certainly didn't seem to running that fast

Mile 3 I brought it down to 7:17, still too fast.  By now, I'm completely soaked, the shoes are wet and my shirt feels like it weighs 5 lbs.  I'm expecting to see my wife around the 3.5 mile mark, so I peeled the shirt off and handed it to her.

Mile 4 I brought down a bit more 7:28 and that was running up what they called a hill, not very steep and probably about .2M long

Mile 5 was 7:31

Mile 6 was 7:34

Mile 7 was 7:34, I'm liking these times.

Mile 8 I'm in trouble, my calf was tightening up. I took time to stop and massage it and went off again, causing me to have a 8:37 M

Mile 9, I'm tiring a bit, but still managed a 7:38

Mile 10 was the loop back up the hill again however I am defintely tiring and the hill is a lot tougher.  I try to pull back my pace to conserve energy and do a 7:51M

Mile 11 was a 7:51.  I am definetly tired and reaching down for energy

mile 12 was a 7:51.  Near the end of mile 12, I caught up to a woman just as a guy was also passing me.  I said something to her about come on, we can do it.  She replied okay, come and catch me.  She took off along with the guy.  I decided not to make my move yet, but tried to keep them both reasonably close  

About the 12.5 mile mark, I took a couple of deep breaths, opened up my stride and let it fly.  Passed both of them within a qtr mile.  I was definetrly tired, didn't know how close they were to me and hit the 13M mark with a respectfully 7:32. 

Didn't have a big sprint left, but maintained that pace for the final tenth of a mile finishing @ 1:40:03 on my watch.  The unofficaly race report had me at 1:40:08. 

I was happier than a pig in shit.  (let's make that a wet pig in the mud)

I was shooting for 1:42:30 and had visions of running a 1:42:00 if I had a good day.  Here I go and almost break 1:40 beating my PR by almost three minutes (previous was 1:43:00) 

A lot of what ifs!  What if I hadn't cramped up, what if it hadn't been raining, what if I had not run so fast miles 2-4? 

But the truth of the matter is, that I ran a hell of a race and I'm proud as hell for it. 

Oh and remember that shirt I left at the top?  I had to walk a half mile up and a half mile back in the pouring rain to get it.  Another lesson learned! 

Larry

added 9/28/09

Official race results:  time 1:40:08  109th out of 510 and 15th out of 51 for my age group

Great job, Larry!  Wow, way to go with the rain and everything. I'm glad you passed those two. 

Great racing Larry.  Thanks for the report.  My first half is in 5 days and I can't wait for it to start.

thanks and we "ALL" look forward to hearing your race report as well. 

One thing I did different in this race verses my race in May, is that I didn't worry about time.  My last race, I carried a plastic covered card with what my time was suppose to be at every mile.  I missed my goal by 30 seconds and was so focused on my times I forgot to enjoy the race. 

This race I didn't worry about it.  I ran to enjoy (okay that's stretching it a little bit) but my wife commented (and she saw me 8 times on the course) that I smiled, I looked like I was having fun (except for the finsih line) and she commented that she was amazed at how many runners waved back to spectators and thanked them. I told her, I thanked people at the water stations, those directing runners, and even thanked the cops for directing trafic.  I was just really in a good place and I think my time was a partial result of that good mental place I was in.

Do you get the message I'm giving you?  "Go out and enjoy it"!

LPH