My 1st Half Marathon!

Glass City Half Marathon 2013...I DID IT!! I RAN 13.1 MILES! Without stopping. In the rain. Without my energy gel. With soaking wet clothes and soggy shoes. Despite the weather, it was an awesome experience and I wanted to blog about it so I don’t forget how it all went down. So, here we go!

Saturday was the most beautiful, sunny day we’ve had so far this year. I picked up my race packet at the Expo, saw lots of my friends getting their packets (several girls I ran track with in HS), registered Kaitlyn & Aundrea for the kids race and off we went to the stadium. The Ballard’s were there too, as well as Kaitlyn’s friend from preschool, Colleen, and her siblings. All the kids ran the half mile race and did super! Kaitlyn was really booking it and came across the finish line, followed by Aundrea. Kaitlyn is like Mommy and does not like to lose. This was Aundrea’s first race so I asked her how she liked it. Her response? “I like the medal, but not the running.” LOL! Sorry kid, you have to put the effort in to get the running bling! The kids also got a cute GCM teddy bear too! I tried to go to bed early Saturday night, but who can sleep the night before a race…too much excitement!!

Sunday morning my alarm went off at 5:15am…ugh…have I mentioned that the worst part of racing is that it usually takes place EARLY in the morning? I felt exhausted because I had been awake from 2:36am ‘til 4:something am…couldn’t go back to sleep! Anyways, I had laid everything out the night before so all I had to do was throw clothes on, braid my hair, put a fresh bandage on my knee (oh yeah, I totally wiped out on my last “easy” run two days before), grab my PB&J sandwich and I was out the door. I arrived at campus (UT) around 6:15am and was immediately cut off by campus police. Apparently, you’re not supposed to drive around road blockades or something? Whatever. I had a race to get to! Thankfully, he was nice and let me go through so I could get to the parking garage where I met the Ballard’s. Awesomely enough, Justin was able to get us into his office at UT so we could use the nice potties, instead of the port-o-potties the other 7000 people were in line for. That was MUCH appreciated, especially since I have a nervous bladder when it comes to races and have to go at least two times within 20 minutes. ;o) Anyways, we were able to stretch out in the warmth (and dryness) of the office and leave some of our stuff in there, as well as with one of the guys wife. She was a trooper and held all of our cell phones, etc. for us…while waiting in the rain for us crazy runners! Anyways, I was on my second potty stop when I looked at my watch and saw that it was 12 minutes to race time. Holy crap, we better get going!

So, one quick pre-race picture and then we weaved our way thru the masses to TRY to get to our pace area…but we didn’t make it. So we were stuck further back than we wanted, but oh well. They had a quick moment of silence in honor of the Boston Marathon…which was awesome, by the way…it was SILENT. And then we were off. Well, not really…we couldn’t move for the first minute, then we walked for another minute or so…we reached the actual starting line about 2 and a half minutes into the race…so I started my watch and THEN we were off! The start of big races like this are always stressful to me…like, you WANT to get out and go fast, but there are thousands of people in your way. I spent pretty much the entire first mile (and part of the second) trying just not to trip over people.
Mile 1 = 9:10

Shortly after passing the 2 mile marker, I saw my friend Lisa, who I ran track with in high school. I recognized her thick, blond ponytail ahead of me and caught up to her. We ran together and chatted for a little bit, exchanged a few “good job, keep it ups!” and then I pulled away. It felt like old times running with her again and it was a nice distraction for the next few miles.

Mile 2 = 8:44
Mile 3 = 8:36

Then it happened. I saw someone’s packet of Gu (carb/energy gel) on the ground…and I semi-lost it, mentally. This is pretty much what went through my head: “Oh $hit! I forgot to eat my Gu! I’ve never ran more than like 7 miles without Gu! What am I gonna do? I’m not gonna make it. I’m gonna have to stop and walk because my legs will be so tired! Maybe someone has an extra packet of Gu I can have. Yeah, right Lori…runners don’t carry EXTRA for other people. Crap! This race is gonna suck. I’m gonna stop and walk and not make my goal…” So much for positive attitude, right? Ha! Seriously, I lost it mentally…looking back, it’s kind of funny, but during the couple of miles that all this was running through my head I was super bummed.

Mile 4 = 8:54
Mile 5 = 9:09

Then I saw the 2:00 pace group with their little sign waving around. “Yes! I’ll stick by them!” So I ran with the pace group for a good portion of the race and I’m so thankful for that little lady and her “2:00” sign. Somewhere during those miles a spectator handed me a wad of thick napkins…apparently to help with the pouring down rain? Surprisingly, it did help keep the water out of my eyes and I blotted my “water-resistant, but not waterproof” watch with it. At this point, we also crossed over Central Ave. and into Wildwood Park. The best part about this was that traffic was lined up for MILES waiting for all the runners to cross and I couldn’t help but feel bad for all those people stuck in their cars…but it made me giggle a little inside knowing they were gonna be there for a long time!
Mile 6 = 9:21
Mile 7 = 9:05
Mile 8 = 9:25

Once we turned out of the park and hit the bike path I knew we were in the final stretch…straight, flat pavement for the next 5 miles…yay! I felt like I could go a little faster, so I pulled away from the 2:00 pace group a little bit. I blotted my watch with the now wet napkin wad and this time it went all crazy on me! Like, new screens with different info I had never seen before during a run. So that happened quite a few times and freaked me out for a few miles. I kept slapping at my watch, trying to get it back to “normal” and of course worrying “How will I know my pace if it’s stuck on calories the whole time? I don’t care about calories!” LOL. Turns out, my watch is supposed to do that when you slap it…who knew?!
Mile 9 = 8:57
Mile 10 = 8:59
Mile 11 = 8:58
Mile 12 = 8:58 (How’s that for consistent pacing?!)

By the 12th mile marker, we were back on UT’s campus and the amount of spectators was starting to increase. “Hooray, people! We’re almost there!” And also “People…don’t want to look too slow or exhausted passing all these people! Pick up the pace a little bit!” Looking at all the people really helped take my mind off of being tired. I knew Wayne, my Mom, Kaitlyn and Aundrea would be there waiting for me so I looked for them the entire time. Before I knew it I was flying (or, not falling) down the hill by Savage Hall and when I got to the bottom I saw my Mom’s orange jacket. “Yes! There they are! Wave and look happy and excited to see them!” I even heard the girls yelling “Go Mommy!” and I saw one of the signs they made for me! I felt good enough to try to kick it in for the last little bit, except people were piling up near the finish line so I couldn’t go as fast as I would have liked. “Get out of my way, people! I want to be done!”
Mile 13 = 8:20
Mile 0.2 = 7:51
My goal was to finish in under 2 hours and I knew that it had taken us at least 2 minutes to get to the starting line at the beginning, so the clock time would be about 2 minutes slower than my chip time. The clock said 2:00:17 when I crossed the finish line…DOH! I REALLY wanted to see my time start with a 1! But, I still made my goal…
Watch Stats: 13.2 miles/1:58:26/8:58 pace

Official Race Stats: 13.1 miles/1:58:14/9:01 pace
Yes!! I secretly was hoping to be in the 1:57s or high 1:56s, but between the rain and forgetting my Gu, I’ll take it. A race worker handed me my medal (!!!) and a space blanket to keep warm and then Amanda found me. Then we found the rest of our crew, collected our race mugs and headed back to the WARM DRY office to stretch. And also dry my shirt out using the bathroom hand dryer. We headed back to the post-race tents to grab some food, freebies, hot chocolate, etc. Overall, a wonderful day despite the yucky rain.
Half marathon in under 2 hours? Check. :o)