I've never ran a race in which had so many hills (well, except for the Turtle Trot but it's a trail race so I don't think that counts). And this warm in November. 72 in NOVEMBER! Needless to say I still managed a decent time of 2:06:51. Just a few minutes over my time of my very first half marathon. After looking at the official results on the clubs website, I even came in 6th out of my age group! That's awesome!
The first mile was hills. The second mile was downhill and the third mile was even better. I ran negative splits those miles. After that I went all over the place in terms of pace.
So many hills. Have I said that yet? But the worst part was the water tables. First one was at 3 miles and every 2.5 miles after that. I decided not to bring my hydration belt with me. That was a mistake. I knew at St. Jude that I would have the option of having water at every single mile so I didn't with that one. I wish I would have known better for this one. There were times in which I wanted water soooo bad but I had no idea when the next table was going to be! Or I needed to cool down and dump water over my head but I couldn't. And then there was the TRAFFIC at the tables. At the very first table, the cups had no water in them as they were pouring them as we were arriving. So no one was around to actually hand out the cups of water. I had to walk through every single table too. One time, my Garmin actually stopped because I myself stopped.
The problem is with this race too is that I don't remember much of where the hills were at because I wasn't familiar enough with the route. Between 5 & 6, I slowed way down. I think that was another hill. At mile 8, things just fell apart. It was very warm out there and my speed just totally slowed down. I even purposely ran over to the other side of the road just to run in some shade. It was w.a.r.m out there!!
Coming out of Forest Park, they actually made us stop while the traffic went. This was for about 30 seconds, maybe longer. It was very hard to get going again after that. I just couldn't believe it but at the same time understand since by this time the race had been going on for nearly 3 hours (walkers started at 7a).
Back down the straight away. I started to count my steps this time between parking spots. I took 7 in each parallel spot. This part I spaced out and don't remember much. I remember seeing what looked like a homeless lady cheer us on and she was covered in Obama signs. Earlier in the race on the first time on the straight away I saw a young lady in an Obama shirt. Funny since I only see McCain/Palin bumper stickers & yard signs it seems.
Then back into the business district of Clayton. More cross roads, luckily no traffic, cops at the intersections. Then I see a hill. Oh goodness, the hill. I was just at 2:03 so I knew I wouldn't PR. I just gritted my teeth and hit it. Then I get to the top. Brent appears next to me! Oh my goodness, so glad to see him! He started running with me letting me know how the next part of the race was going. I tell him only .5 miles left (I think or it was .6). He was saying so many motivational stuff. Saying that it's just downhill and a very small uphill around a corner and then another downhill to the finish. So he was with me. I told him to pace me as in he kept me going. Then after the last uphill and finally going downhill he said push it push it and I managed to pass a couple as well. That was fun. He didn't finish with me and he ran off in the crowd I'm guessing.
I forgot to stop my Garmin watch as I crossed the line but that's ok. I went over to a volunteer who had a milk crate in front of her so she could cut off my chip. I couldn't lift up my left leg! and I kept falling over. She finally reached out her hand and I grabbed it to steady myself and then put my foot up and she quickly cut it off. Then I went to the exit and the lady handed me a medal and then she let go before I could grab it so it dropped to the ground. She wasn't moving to get it so I reached down to grab it and then she saw me do it and started to get it herself but I beat her to it and then she apologised and said that I should never have to do that. Needless to say I was a little light headed reaching down like that!
Then I caught back up with Brent. He took me over to the water station. I grabbed a bottle of water & Strawberry Propel and then a banana as well even though I wasn't hungry. Then we headed inside the building to stretch. While we were in there, we heard that there was going to be a raffle. So we each grabbed a ticket. After a few winners, Brent's number won! He got a gift certificate of dinner for 2 at some restaurant in Clayton! This is the second race in a row that he won in the raffle!
We didn't stay for the awards but did check out the final results on our way out. While stretching I took off my shoe and rubbed the bottom of my right foot. The ball of my foot was still hurting. We walked out and I stopped by the massage tent but they were starting to pack up so I didn't get looked at. I figured I would just Google it later.
Then we went home, Brent rolled me out so very much. Took a shower and and ate pizza. Glorious pizza! Then I left around 4p but didn't stop until I was 30 minutes from home for gas. Getting out and walking wasn't too bad. I mean, I could feel my muscles but I wasn't limping (well, the bottom of my foot hurt A LOT).
After I got done with the race, I told Brent that I wasn't planning on running the St. Louis Marathon in April after all. Cause seriously if it was like this, there's no way I could run that! We'll see though. Maybe my foot problems will get better.
The elevation table & weather text is very much the epitome of the race!
The first mile was hills. The second mile was downhill and the third mile was even better. I ran negative splits those miles. After that I went all over the place in terms of pace.
So many hills. Have I said that yet? But the worst part was the water tables. First one was at 3 miles and every 2.5 miles after that. I decided not to bring my hydration belt with me. That was a mistake. I knew at St. Jude that I would have the option of having water at every single mile so I didn't with that one. I wish I would have known better for this one. There were times in which I wanted water soooo bad but I had no idea when the next table was going to be! Or I needed to cool down and dump water over my head but I couldn't. And then there was the TRAFFIC at the tables. At the very first table, the cups had no water in them as they were pouring them as we were arriving. So no one was around to actually hand out the cups of water. I had to walk through every single table too. One time, my Garmin actually stopped because I myself stopped.
The problem is with this race too is that I don't remember much of where the hills were at because I wasn't familiar enough with the route. Between 5 & 6, I slowed way down. I think that was another hill. At mile 8, things just fell apart. It was very warm out there and my speed just totally slowed down. I even purposely ran over to the other side of the road just to run in some shade. It was w.a.r.m out there!!
Coming out of Forest Park, they actually made us stop while the traffic went. This was for about 30 seconds, maybe longer. It was very hard to get going again after that. I just couldn't believe it but at the same time understand since by this time the race had been going on for nearly 3 hours (walkers started at 7a).
Back down the straight away. I started to count my steps this time between parking spots. I took 7 in each parallel spot. This part I spaced out and don't remember much. I remember seeing what looked like a homeless lady cheer us on and she was covered in Obama signs. Earlier in the race on the first time on the straight away I saw a young lady in an Obama shirt. Funny since I only see McCain/Palin bumper stickers & yard signs it seems.
Then back into the business district of Clayton. More cross roads, luckily no traffic, cops at the intersections. Then I see a hill. Oh goodness, the hill. I was just at 2:03 so I knew I wouldn't PR. I just gritted my teeth and hit it. Then I get to the top. Brent appears next to me! Oh my goodness, so glad to see him! He started running with me letting me know how the next part of the race was going. I tell him only .5 miles left (I think or it was .6). He was saying so many motivational stuff. Saying that it's just downhill and a very small uphill around a corner and then another downhill to the finish. So he was with me. I told him to pace me as in he kept me going. Then after the last uphill and finally going downhill he said push it push it and I managed to pass a couple as well. That was fun. He didn't finish with me and he ran off in the crowd I'm guessing.
I forgot to stop my Garmin watch as I crossed the line but that's ok. I went over to a volunteer who had a milk crate in front of her so she could cut off my chip. I couldn't lift up my left leg! and I kept falling over. She finally reached out her hand and I grabbed it to steady myself and then put my foot up and she quickly cut it off. Then I went to the exit and the lady handed me a medal and then she let go before I could grab it so it dropped to the ground. She wasn't moving to get it so I reached down to grab it and then she saw me do it and started to get it herself but I beat her to it and then she apologised and said that I should never have to do that. Needless to say I was a little light headed reaching down like that!
Then I caught back up with Brent. He took me over to the water station. I grabbed a bottle of water & Strawberry Propel and then a banana as well even though I wasn't hungry. Then we headed inside the building to stretch. While we were in there, we heard that there was going to be a raffle. So we each grabbed a ticket. After a few winners, Brent's number won! He got a gift certificate of dinner for 2 at some restaurant in Clayton! This is the second race in a row that he won in the raffle!
We didn't stay for the awards but did check out the final results on our way out. While stretching I took off my shoe and rubbed the bottom of my right foot. The ball of my foot was still hurting. We walked out and I stopped by the massage tent but they were starting to pack up so I didn't get looked at. I figured I would just Google it later.
Then we went home, Brent rolled me out so very much. Took a shower and and ate pizza. Glorious pizza! Then I left around 4p but didn't stop until I was 30 minutes from home for gas. Getting out and walking wasn't too bad. I mean, I could feel my muscles but I wasn't limping (well, the bottom of my foot hurt A LOT).
After I got done with the race, I told Brent that I wasn't planning on running the St. Louis Marathon in April after all. Cause seriously if it was like this, there's no way I could run that! We'll see though. Maybe my foot problems will get better.
The elevation table & weather text is very much the epitome of the race!
Activity
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Posted from bimactive.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
