Stats | Links | Photos | Narrative
Stats
HRM Time 3:25:??
Official Time (preliminary) 3:26:27
Weight: 232 (12 pounds heavier than last half-marathon)
Average Heart Rate: 174 bpm (93% of calculated max, so surely my actual max is higher than the calculated, but the point still is that this was a VERY high effort)
Photos
The Parthenon shortly after I arrived at Centennial Park...
...and two hours later after the rest of the crowd showed up to stand in these porta-potty lines.
Runners formed a perfect square under the gas station awning. The block before they had taken over a small parking garage. I got a trash bag from the hotel staff (when oh when will I remember to bring my own trash bags) and made shoe covers from some random baggies in my luggage.
This Starbucks was just in front of my starting corral. I really wanted to run in there, but contained myself.
A bit blurry, but you can see the unending mass of people all the way down the street. It felt like walking in a mall crowd the entire way, but the wave start kept things just spread out enough that I could keep to my own pace with a little bit of weaving through the crowd.
A relatively energetic finisher!
Links
Event website and course map.
Narrative
THINGS SEEN AND DONE
Travel: I flew Southwest. Ummmm... not something I'm usually willing to do, but they had a directly flight. The couple that sat next to me were headed to the race as well- the wife to run with a few friends from other cities and the husband for company. I mentioned to them the absurd amount I was spending for a second tier hotel (I couldn't even get it for points; I had to use real money and a lot of it). The husband thought it was outrageous. Wife: "Um... honey..." I ended up staying near the convention center and finish line (there were shuttles to the start line). It was good for a car-free existence (just needed a shuttle downtown), but really downtown Nashville sucks and getting up at 3:30 AM sucks. If I had stayed near the finish line I would have been in a nicer area and I would have gotten up at 6:00 AM.
Community Race Support: The variety of groups camped out along the route to cheer was, um, cheerful. Several church cheer groups. I don't quite get the church cheer group, but this is something girls do and they were very sweet. Several other general church groups. A dulcimer club playing their dulcimers (the course passed in front of their meeting house). The official bands. A couple of un-official bands. Part of the course went through a residential neighborhood and families had set up tents and lawn chairs and were out there with their dogs. One elderly couple had set up a table and chairs right on the edge of the road with strawberries and champagne. A college comedian on bullhorn, who did a good job of telling a running set of small self-deprecating jokes that the runner could understand going by. One college-age young man with a bullhorn announcing in a monotone: "Get your high-five here. If you need some support. If you need a pick-me-up, high five right here." Girlfriends taps him on the shoulder. "Just a moment." Listens to a whisper; picks the bullhorn back up. "And hugs. We also give hugs." I skipped them but got quite a few high fives from some sweet children that were watching from a gas station along the way.
Other racers: Somehow I hadn't realized what a big even this is. On the way to the starting line, when I saw the line up of about 10 UPS trucks that were serving as the gear-check, that was a clue. People I saw: A trio of elderly men labeled "Pawpaw" "Popa" and "Poppy". A man labeled "I'm 61 and this is my first half-marathon." A multigenerational family, one older man pushing a very elderly lady in a wheelchair. A group of boys in pink running skirts (these are getting more popular with women, many of whom were wearing them in the race) running for breast cancer research. A woman with a T-shirt, "Running to combat breadass." I want one of those t-shirts! Quite a few women of 300 lbs. or more, many of whom finished strong. Quite a few women showing their excess skin (post-300 pounders). A few people I used as pace-markers included a tiny old woman in a Screaming Eagles shirt and a woman who was always in front of me with blue tights, fabulous legs, and ass-length Pipi Longstocking braids that she absentmindedly twirled in her hands and she absentmindedly walked faster than I was running. Hmmm.
MY RACE
Training: My training has consisted of simple "get in the miles". A minimum of 40 per week, almost all walking lately, with a longest long walk of 16 miles. I've had that questioned, but after this experience I think there is much to recommend it. The fact is that on race day you have a lot more than 13.1 miles to do: walk to the buses, walk to the start, walk out of the crowd after. You have to be in condition to do all of that. And the more 13.1 miles can be a sprint in your own personal experience; I think that's a good thing. After all, that's what Ryan Hall ( a top runner) claims a half-marathon should be like.
Taper and Food: I stayed off from long walks for 14 days and from the rest of my schedule for 7 days. I was feeling a little bit of fatigue; more of a taper would have been better for best performance. I "ate" (that is, quit restricting food per ww'ers and ate pretty much as much as I could) for 48 hours to re-fill my muscles with glycogen and turn around the weight-loss trend. After the first day I was worried that two days wasn't enough, but it ended up being perfect. The only thing that went wrong was I ate a package of dried fruit for breakfast on race morning and it caused more, um, movement, than was desirable.
Meds: I hadn't previously taken anti-inflammatory medication before a race. This time I took Advil. Ibiprophen is recommended because it doesn't interfere with the kidneys. I don't usually carry ibiprophen because of my former liver issues (fatty liver disease, resolved since I have lost weight), and I feel fairly in control of my salt and water level issues, so I went ahead and took Advil. I felt a little lightheaded toward the end of the race, but I think it was more about the very high heart rate than about the Advil. And, bonus, taking Advil slows down peeing! Thing long time in the starting box (I crossed the start line an hour and eight minutes after the start) and not needing to pee.
Race Morning: I had set the alarm for 3:30 AM, but it was drowned out by a giant crash of thunder. My intention was to get to the start line buses by 5:00 AM, right in the middle of their two-hour run. I was a little eager out of the hotel and got there at 4:30AM and was able to walk right onto a bus. I actually didn't see another human being my entire walk from the hotel to the buses, which made me a little concerned that I wasn't smart and early but going the wrong way. Later we learned there was huge lines for the later buses, so I get the clever award. The crowd was so bad that late arrivals had trouble getting from the freeway to the buses on time, and all parking spaces at the stadium finish area were taken up.
Start Line: Found my race pen, which was just behind Starbucks (mmmm...Starbucks...mmmmm) and next to CVS. Popped into CVS for a Milkyway Dark and some jerky. Met a guy who had just come out of one of the nearby hotels. Him, "I didn't even wake up until 6:00 AM." Me, "I bet you got breakfast!" The wave start was brilliant and every race should use it.
Mile 1: I passed mile 1 in about 12 minutes.
Mile 2 - 4: By the end of mile 4 I was 2 minutes behind my 15 minute pace goal. All these miles were at top effort and I wondered how long I could do that before falling apart, but going any slower would mean no PR so I just kept pressing.
Miles 5 - 8: Somewhere in here I ended up a bit more than 8 minutes behind my page goal. If I kept slowing down at this rate, there would be no PR, but I was going as fast as I could.
Miles 9 - 11: Mile 10 is where I tanked in both of my previous half-marathons, and the lowest number I had seen on the heart rate monitor was 169. So I was expecting something to happen, but it didn't. I was expecting that I still might not be able to hold onto getting my PR, and wavered between really caring, really being upset if I wasn't going to be able to do it, and convincing myself that actually I didn't care. I discovered that on my run (I had run/walk most of the race, anywhere from 50 to 75% running per mile) I could put more kick into it than I thought. Somewhere between here and the finish I made up almost two minutes on my goal pace. I think this is where a longest training walk of 16 miles comes in- it made it possible for me to claw back that time because I was not at the end of what I'm capable of.
Miles 12 to finish: Once I passed mile marker 12, I know I can do almost anything for a mile. So I pressed the run into a slightly higher gear and crossed the finish line smiling. This is so different from the stop-and-stretch every half mile, back-cramps and near giving up that has characterized the end of each of my previous races.
Performance evaluation: First, I am really pleased to see the effectiveness of my training. To get a PR when I am 12 pounds up is really something. And that average HR says that it is something more than training, I'm developing some toughness that I didn't have before. I had the muscles and I had the cardiovascular to go faster, but I was just maxed out (again, note the heart rate). Which says that it's all about the fat. The #1 thing I can do right now to improve is get this weight off.
Notes on the head game: I had said that after the San Francisco half-marathon I had learned an important lesson about pain. In that even, I spent three miles in a conversation with it. The thing is, it is just there, nothing is going to change that. More experience is allowing me to just tune it out. The other thing I already knew is that this really is a head game. Cheering helps. Hating the competitor closest to you and deciding there is no way they can stay in front of you helps. But this race I had another lesson on just how much of a game it is: I discovered that I go through blocks approaching a red traffic light much slower than approaching a green traffic light. I learned to use the greens and distract myself from the reds.
Immediate post race: Before the race I hadn't felt very "peppy" and I haven't felt like running in training at all. Yet it turns out that I'm in much better condition than I was last year. My quad muscles were quivering and kept at it for about half an hour, but I could fairly comfortably (for having just finished a half-marathon) wander around the post-race goings on and then over the footbridge back to my hotel. I arrived at the hotel feeling completely beat, but only actually slept about two hours before going to my steak dinner. (At dinner, the bartenders were discussing the race and puzzling out the details amongst themselves: "Why do they do it? Are they getting paid or something?" LOL!)
Next day: I'm at that level of soreness and head-to-toe hot muscles that it was difficult to fall and stay asleep. When I first start moving I'm pretty tied up, but after a few steps walking actually goes fairly well. My upper shoulders are pretty sore, but I don't have the total upper back cramping that I had during/after other races.