Rain rain and still more rain

I don't think I'll be running in another race in Missouri. No offense to the state or anything but it's seriously NOT conducive to me running at all.

Key points

• A half I can pace on my own, my stats prove that much! 3 sets of 2 miles I ran the same time in!
• I ran through shin deep water that was ice cold!
• I started passing people at the end of the race, amazing feat. I blame the walking up the hills.
• I still managed to come in a decent time even though I walked. Maybe there's something to the whole "walk-run" thing after all!
• My friend Rob is totally awesome for putting up with me and this crazy running notion of mine!
• I have 2 videos about 10 minutes each of the race down below the stats.

I drove over to my friend Rob's house on Thursday from southern Illinois to Columbia, MO. It was about a 4 hour drive.

When I got in, he gave me a booklet of a festival that Columbia was having called Roots 'n Blues 'n BBQ. I was going through it and I saw an advertisement for a half marathon. I got all sorts of excited reading it! I immediately got online and was looking up information. Then I saw the price. $60 and then a $12 late fee. Ouch. For a half marathon?? So decided not to do it.

The original plan was to run 8 miles on the Katy Trail while Rob biked along with me. I am in taper mode after all and my marathon is only next weekend. Another reason not to do the run, it's all hills and I don't need to injure myself with only a week to go!

Next day, I was in the shower and was thinking about this race again. How cool would it be to say that I did a half marathon in Columbia with my best friend watching and cheering me on? They did have a 10k option and I could do that but I'd rather do the half.

So I get dressed go out and look at Rob and say, I think I really want to do the half. :-) We find out where we can go sign me up since there is no race day registration and head on down there. They only charged me $10 for the late fee. And I wasn't guaranteed a shirt since I was late. I had to go pick up one after the race. I also read after I got my packet that there are no medals but instead a finisher's glass. Hmmpf.

Rob and I decided to have a chill night on Friday night and since I needed to carbo load, we ordered some fantastic pizza, cheese bread and watched 3 movies that evening. It was fantastic! Got everything all laid out and prepared that evening as well. I'm pretty lucky that I had a good arsenal of stuff to bring with me these days!

Up early at 5:45a since the race began at 7am (!!!). Walked out the door and it's pitch black and raining. Not just sprinkling but good sized drops. Craps. Rob said that he heard it waking up, but I didn't. I grabbed my sweatshirt to wear while we were waiting around. It was kinda cool about mid-high 50's.

Gee, does any of this sound familiar?? A reminder of my St. Louis Marathon back in April.

Took only about a 20 minute drive down there and found a decent parking spot thanks to Rob looking that up the evening before. Walked on over to the start and while I was in the port-a-potty I heard it started to rain harder. Walked out and sure enough, it was coming down harder. Fantastic. Rob & I gathered & huddled underneath a walkway to protect us from the rain. Soon it was time to head on over to the start line.

They did have pacers in this race so that was awesome. I saw one holding up an inflatible hand and it said 1:30. Whoops. WAY too fast. Walked back and saw the 1:45 and then finally the 2:00 guy. He also had 2:00 written on his back in big numbers. I knew I wanted to stay with him but if I lost him, no biggie. A half I can pace on my own, a full marathon, I can't.

I had brought my water bottle pack with me but decided at last minute that I didn't really need it since it was pretty cool. I wanted to practice wearing it in a race if I decide to wear it in Milwaukee. I also handed over my sweatshirt to Rob, hugged him goodbye and he walked away.

We were standing on a hill and the rain you could see was just coming down in streams on the road. I already knew this was not going to bode well. I did see Rob after I passed the start and we waved at each other again.

I was going pretty even keel the first few miles of the race. Wasn't pushing it or anything. Ran up a few hills in those first few miles as well. Again, not a good sign for what was to come in the rest of the race. But my breathing was. I saw the 2:00 pacer well ahead of me and again wasn't too worried about it. The first mile was running through the campus of University of Missouri, where Rob teaches and even past the stadium where they play football.

Then we started to head out of town, south. And down the steepest bloody hill I've ever seen. I kept running but I ended up kinda galloping down it. That's what people were commenting on it anyway (in the video). That 2nd mile I ended up going 8:46! Right after this, I saw lightning in the sky. That I was surprised to see. I thought I saw it back in first mile but thought maybe it was just someone's flash. But this was definitely NOT mistaken. It was in the sky as I was running down a hill.

Then we hit up the trail. Not quite sandstone like the one I run on but gray stones but it wasn't pebbles either so that I was glad. Then it started raining harder. Not pouring but I was definitely getting wet. Even running under the trees of the trail didn't help things. I started to get worried about my Garmin at this time. Again, remember St. Louis and how Phil died after that race?! I kept my hand upside down to keep the rain off of it but not sure how much that was helping. Rain was dripping off of my hat by this time and hitting my hand with my camera in it too. Nothing was soaking it up anymore.

On this trail we ran around a very pretty lake. Got some good pictures. That was when mile 6 marker was upon us. Halfway there! I ate my jelly beans at this time so I was able to get them out of my hand. Also when the leaders were looping back on us. And when we hit the biggest UPHILL I have seen yet on this course. I'm not ashamed to say this. I walked up it (in the video).

At mile 8 I saw Rob. He manged to find me on the way! Which was a very lovely surprise! I didn't know he was gonna be there! After we parted ways, the lady beside me commented on me bringing my camera. I said yep, I have on the past 3 halves and past 2 marathons. She asked me what marathons I've done. Told her and then said that I have one next week. Wanted to know where that one was at and told her Milwaukee. I said because of that, I'm not looking to do anything special with this one. Just run it, especially since I come from pancake flat northern Illinois. We talked a little more and then I put in my earbuds again and we played leapfrog for a while but then she took off and that was OK by me. It was all subdivision running on this part so we had more spectators since they were just standing outside of their houses. I also noticed right before I saw Rob that it had stopped raining all together! YAY! 2 more hills, 2 more walks.

Then after 9 miles, I ran back down that hill and was totally picking up a ton of speed. I passed a group of girls (in the video). At the bottom of the, took a turn and back up another hill. This one was shorter but a lot steeper. I again walked it but even that was difficult!! The gaggle of girls passed me yet again (in the video).

Right after 11 miles, we got on the main road and I started passing people again (in the video). Not sure how that was happening. I told myself that I needed to wait until after mile 12 to start kicking it. Needed to make sure I had enough in the tank for that. Off the highway and down to the Katy Trail again but we ran into a problem. A fast moving current in the tunnel we had to go under. The amount of rain that Columbia had that morning flooded the tunnel and we had to wade through it. It wasn't just a tiny stream. This was to my shins. And it was ice cold water. Halfway through my feet and ankles were numb and pins & needles. Coming out of the water, I started running again and they HURT so bad!!! (DEFINITELY in the video)

I had realised by this time that my Garmin watch was off by a few tenths of a mile. So by the time we reached the 12 mile mark, my watch was saying 12.2 miles. And it kept going higher and higher. I really started gunning it once we got off the trail and onto the city path along the river. I passed a few people (two I had to squeeze through the middle of) and one I told him twice that I was coming up on his left so he wouldn't drift left as we made a slight turn.

My Garmin ended up saying that I ran 13.54 miles in 2:08:49. I forgot to stop it as soon as I crossed the finish line. But since this race was chip timed that's OK. The official time was 2:08:37. It seems I keep getting slower in my half marathon times. But again, I must remember, I'm not used to hills nor was I actually wanting to break any time barriers!

I got a free meal ticket. They had Rock Star energy drinks, brisket/pulled pork (I gave Rob the sandwich), coleslaw, frozen bananas. It's funny because as we were standing around eating, the sun came out. If they only held it an hour later, 8am instead of 7am, the race would have been very pleasant. I got a shirt as well and also a finishers pint glass.

We heard the 10k results. In my age group, 3rd place ran 56:11. I very well could have had a chance in placing!! Though of course, I have no idea cause of the hills.

All in all, it was a very good race. I am really proud of myself with the time & the hills. And I'm very glad to have a friend that was willing to hang out for 2 hours while I went out and ran. And also very glad that we got to share in this experience too!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 661 ft Location: Columbia, MO Elev. Gain: -16 ft Date: 09/26/09 Up/Downhill: [+951/-967] Time: 07:04 AM Difficulty: 3.7 / 5.0 Weather: Overcast 55 F temp; 92% humidity 55 F heat index; winds SE 7 Performance Distance: 13.52 miles Time: 2:08:50 Speed: 6.3 mph Pace: 9' 32 /mi Heart Rate: 176 bpm (Avg) Calories: 1424 197 bpm (Peak) Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 19 -0' 13 6.4 +0.1 160 +23 ft 2 8' 46 -0' 46 6.8 +0.5 176 -66 ft 3 9' 07 -0' 25 6.6 +0.3 175 -59 ft 4 9' 15 -0' 17 6.5 +0.2 174 -23 ft 5 9' 15 -0' 17 6.5 +0.2 176 +6 ft 6 9' 14 -0' 18 6.5 +0.2 177 -17 ft 7 10' 06 +0' 34 5.9 -0.4 178 +66 ft 8 10' 06 +0' 34 5.9 -0.4 178 +99 ft 9 9' 15 -0' 17 6.5 +0.2 179 -39 ft 10 10' 21 +0' 49 5.8 -0.5 174 -69 ft 11 10' 21 +0' 49 5.8 -0.5 177 +82 ft 12 9' 14 -0' 18 6.5 +0.2 178 -92 ft 13 9' 56 +0' 24 6.0 -0.3 183 +50 ft end 8' 50 -0' 42 6.8 +0.5 191 +23 ft Versus average of 9' 32 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Videos
I included duration of the clips so you know when you can skip over them. Sometimes I talk in the clips, sometimes I don't. Both videos are pretty long, almost 10 minutes each. Sometimes I don't exactly have the most steady hands while I was running. Sorry for that. Even I was getting sick watching the swaying! But seeing the people pass me as I'm walking up the hills are impressive!

Columbia Half Marathon -- 1st half


Columbia Half Marathon -- 2nd half (also with the water in the tunnel, this is a Must See)

Categories: pictures, races, Roots 'n Blues 'n BBQ Half Marathon