Hobbler Half Marathon

A few weekends ago I ran the Hobbler Half Marathon.  It's down by Springville, and I went in thinking it was the same course as the Hobble Creek Half Marathon that I ran last year.
JOKES ON ME!
This course was way more difficult than the one I ran before, even mentally compensating for the drastic downturn my running skills have taken.  It was still a pretty run; just different than I had expected.
It was pretty well organized, but I probably won't do this one again.  The course was just decent and there are other races I enjoy more (and plenty I haven't tried yet!).
Since I had not anticipated a PR by any means, I decided to just run by feel and try to enjoy it. I didn't take my GPS watch or keep track of mile splits.  That left me with a time just a minute faster than the AF half, with a 2:03.  I had been hoping to get back down to sub-2, but that wasn't happening on this course (or with the lack of training).

Anyway, not my best or most fun race, but I guess it was better than pounding the pavement around town.

The Race Pacers

For longer distance races, such as half or full marathons, there is someone called a pacer.  What they do is run the race in a set amount of time, so that if you have a specific race goal all you need to do is stick with them and you will cross the finish line at the right time.  Or if you wanted to break a certain time you just need to cross before them.  They're basically a fancy watch.

I have always thought that pacers are so cool.  They all have their matching pace shirts so you can pick them out of the crowd and carry a sign with the race time and pace on it for the whole race.  I always thought, "Oh man, I hope I'm legit enough one day to be a pacer!".  Well guess what, folks:  either I'm legit now, or pacers aren't as legit as I thought they were!

A runner friend of mine (who is truly legit.  He wins marathons. No big deal.) offered me the chance to pace the Halloween Half Marathon in Provo this past weekend.  My PR is a 1:45, and I would be pacing at an easy 2:20 (pacers run at a time quite slower than their current ability, just to be sure that they will make it and still have energy to encourage people :).  I was also put in charge of recruiting someone else to pace with me, so I got Poppa White on board!

I had a blast pacing!  There was actually a third lady pacing with us who has run a lot of races.  She had a very different method than I would use in the future, so I'm looking forward to trying out some new things. But it was a lot of fun talking to her and my dad-in-law about different running stories and race experiences! I am so grateful to have a  DIL who has all of this running knowledge and experience.  I have sure needed it as I have gotten more into racing!

I'm already signed up to do pacing for a half marathon in January, and there are several other halves in the works throughout 2012.  I also might even get to pace a full in the summer.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited!  The great thing about pacing is that you get to run the race for free, you can just have some fun, meet some people, and get more involved in the race community :)

St. George Marathon recap

Overall, running my first marathon was a great experience.  I made some big mistakes that likely cost me a lot of time, but I learned a ton from this race.  I'm really looking forward to my next marathon and hopefully seeing some improvement :)

We stayed in Cedar City the night before.  Sam, poppa White, and I got up around 3:30am and Sam drove us down to the buses.  We loaded up, and rode up to the middle-of-nowhere starting line.  I was so impressed with the organization and thought that was obviously put into this race. Even with all 7400 runners, things we run very smoothly and they didn't run out of anything, there were plenty of bathrooms, etc.  The only thing I didn't like was how cheerful the announcer was when he told us that it was going to be "unseasonably hot today, with some headwinds!" ;)

Doesn't it look like fun?

After waiting in line for the bathroom, I made it in the nick of time to line up with the 3:45 pace group.  My plan was the stick with them for a while, then drop back to the 4:00 if I needed to.  For the first 7 miles I was ahead of them and just going along pretty steadily.  At Veyo hill- the steepest incline of the race-  I slowed down but kept a steady pace.  A bit after the hill the 3:45 group caught up with me, and I stuck with them for the next 2 miles of incline.  Around mile 12 I had to stop for the bathroom, but could still see them ahead of me on the course when I came out.  I had planned on steadily catching up to them, and was doing well at getting gradually closer for the next mile or so.  Then I realized that at some point I had accidentally stopped my GPS watch. Very bad news.  This made it much more difficult to figure out my average pace, when the next aid station would be, and how I was doing.  I was able to kind of mentally calculate what it should be, but then I accidentally stopped my watch again at mile 16, and again later on.  There was no hope of redemption, and it really made it hard for me to pace myself properly.

I carried on pretty steadily until mile 18, when my quads started cramping from a particularly steep downhill.  At the next aid station I got a volunteer to hook my up with some Icy Hot which helped a lot.  I got a second wind from then until mile 23, which is when things really got difficult.

At this point we had reached the city, and there were a ton of people lined up in the street for the rest of the race.  They even had school bands playing.  For some this probably would have been really helpful and encouraging, but it actually made it harder for me.  I have my music playlist all with a specific BPM, so I run in cadence in order to maintain my pace.  With all of the noise I couldn't hear it anymore, and after running 23+ miles, that was not so good.  My calves started getting charley horses, my quads began to seize up more severely, and even my forearms started to cramp.  Then the 4:00 pacer caught up with me.  I realized that this was not a good thing at this point:  since I had crossed the start line before him, there was no way I was going to get far enough ahead to actually break the 4:00 time.  We were also at mile 25.2 around this point.  After running that far and being in that much pain, "only" needing to run 1 more mile was a horrible feeling.

Finishing strong.

I've mentioned before that I get all philosophical and emotional during runs (especially races) sometimes.  At this point I had to make a decision.  I wasn't going to make my goal time.  I could have said "nuts to this!" and just walked the rest of the way since I wasn't going to get what I had wanted anyway.  Or I could keep pushing with everything I had left and finished strong, regardless of time.  I'm proud to say that I gave it all I could.  With some help (yelling) from the pacer, I made it my new goal to just beat him to the finish line.

Right after finishing.  I don't remember
this picture being taken!

When the balloon arches of the finish line came into sight, I ran my very, very fastest that I could in that moment.  I don't know how fast it really was, but I know that I did all that I could.  As soon as I crossed the finish line and they started herding us into the runners' area, I pretty much wandered aimlessly through the crowd trying to find my family and hoping that I wouldn't collapse somewhere that they would't be able to find me.

My official time was 4:01:46

The good ol' race motto

There is something significant and meaningful to me about "missing the mark" by that small margin.  In my nature it would be extremely easy to feel regret about the mistakes I made that caused me delays.  I could be extremely dissatisfied and write off the entire race over that 1:46.  I made mistakes with food, fluids, pacing, my watch, and so many other things.  But the fact that I am trying (and mostly succeeding) at being satisfied with how I did-- and what I did-- is actually quite outstanding.  But it's less than two minutes.  Over 26.22 miles. That's kind of a big deal that I just did that.  Plus, for being my first marathon, there is definitely a learning curve.  I learned a lot and will be able to take what I learned and use it for my next marathon (in June!).

Hobble Creek Half Marathon

my loyal supporter, even
though he hates running
and thinks I'm crazy ;)

I'm going to chalk this one up to a big success!

The night before I couldn't find my iPod, I couldn't sleep, I was in a bad mood, I already had wicked cuts on my feet, and I just didn't really want to do the race.  Not so good!  Finally, around 1:30am, I fell asleep.  I woke up at 4:20am, had my classic PB and banana on toast, then Sam drove me down to Mapleton (he's the best).  

As for the race organization, I have some beef with how things were run.  Even though it has been going for about 15 years, they are quite disorganized.  There is a lack of responsiveness to questions, their website is a mess, and they have this arrogant attitude about things.  Packet pickup was a mess with only one line and one person handing things out, the start line wasn't set up when we got there, apparantly the finish line wasn't set up yet for the first person down, and they just didn't extend as many courtesies that most races (in my limited experience/knowledge) do.  They say it's "elite" and thus only finishers get shirts and the top 100 get medals, but somehow I feel like that's moreso a way to save money.  

Anyway... On to more positive things. The actual course was amazing.  It had a nice gradual downhill that didn't destroy my knees, some uphill for a challenge and practice for the St. George, and even though they started half an hour late the trees provided some good shade.  Lots  of local kiddos were out spraying people with hoses if they wanted to cool down a bit more, haha.  I think the course is the reason people come back.

hello orange shirt man

So, on to results.  My gps watch said 12.85mi, and a pace of 8:10.  The thing is, with all of the turns the watch might not be accurate.  It's more "connect-the-dots" and so it can be off.  So I don't know if they marked things wrong, my watch was wrong, or I just did very well at navigating turns.  In any case, here's what the official results said:

Race time: 1:47:03 (pace=8:10)

Chip time: 1:45:14 (pace=8:01)

Overall placing: 248/1074

Gender/age placing: 6/57

Anyway, I think I'm going to count the 1:47 as my time, since it has the same pace as my Garmin.  So there you have it- I shaved at least 5 minutes off of my last race!  I think 6th is also the best I've gotten for age group results.  I'm really pleased with how things went even though my heart wasn't really in it this time.  Now there are only 41 days until the St. George marathon.  EEK!!

Timpanogos Half Marathon

Race 3: down! ANNNNND:

I totally PR'ed. OH YEAH!  I was so nervous that I wouldn't preform very well in this race, after a long hiatus of sickness and then laziness.  But I made it!  Think of how much faster I would have been if I wasn't slacking off o.O

Anyway-  I totally forgot my body glide, my Canada tattoos, and I didn't wear me inspirational shirt :(  What the heck!  But no batteries died, and no knees throbbed :)  I was also much more consistent with my pace.  Almost the entire time I was a sub-9 minute mile pace, while last race I had booked it for 7 miles and then died the last part.  

So yeah. Kind of the bomb.

Sam was the only one who took pictures... But I'll need to jack his phone to post them.  It's cool, I know where he sleeps and his phone is always near ;)