The day before the race, I had to go pick up my bib and t-shirt at the race expo. I had run a race that had an expo before. In fact, most of the road races I had run had I signed up for the day of the race. The expo seemed pretty cool, and I would have liked to have looked around more, but I probably would have been tempted to buy some new socks or a headband or a pair of those shoes with the individual toes.
I went to bed Friday night with the alarm set for 5:30, but I was so excited for the race that I barely slept, which probably wasn't a good thing. I chopped up a mango for breakfast and got dressed. I know they say high fiber foods aren't good to eat before a race, but I have a hard time eating anything but fruits and veggies when I'm nervous. We left a little after 6:00 and parked on campus, just over a hill from the start of the race. On the way there I noticed some ominous clouds rolling in, and hoped they wouldn't interfere with the race. When I got out of the car, I guess I was holding the envelope with my bib and safety pins in it upside down, because three of the four pins fell out. I retraced my steps and found two of them, and one of the race volunteers was nice enough to give me a new one. I had just enough time to use the porta-potty before lining up to start.
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| Lining up to start the race. It only looks like nighttime because of the ominous black clouds overhead. |
About five minutes before the race was supposed to start, they made an announcement that the race would be postponed due to some bad weather that was about to come through. They directed us to wait inside Memorial Union until the storm blew over. At that point it wasn't actually raining, but we all went inside to wait. About 25 minutes later the rain started coming down hard. After about an hour I started feeling really hungry. I saw some people bringing food back to the room where we were waiting. I went in search of food and picked up a banana, my usual pre-run food. When I got back, James told me they were going to make an announcement soon. Just after I started eating my banana they announced that the race would be starting in 15 minutes. I should have stopped eating at that point, but instead, I wolfed down the banana and headed outside.
It was still raining really hard at that point, but the threat of lightning had passed. Because of the rain, it was significantly colder than the first time we lined up, even though it was about an hour and a half later. Instead of a gun they just had a countdown, which I found strange. Races always start out kind of slowly as people funnel through the starting line. I got impatient and started my watch to early, so I knew my timing would be off. The first mile was really easy, since I tried to stay around a 9 min/mile pace. I started toward the back, so I was passing a lot of people at this point. It was raining so hard that I could barely see as the water dripped into my eyes.
After I got to the first mile marker I decided to speed up a little to achieve my goal of finishing in under 9 min/mile. About halfway through the second mile we got off the roads and onto the lakeshore bike path, which goes back to Memorial Union. I began noticing how heavy my legs felt due to the two waterlogged sponges (also called shoes) attached to the ends. The second mile was my fastest; according to my Garmin, I ran it in under 8:40. It was at the end this mile that I noticed that my watch was beeping to indicate I was at 2 miles long before the mile marker was even in sight.
During the third mile things began to get rough. The banana in my stomach was beginning to make its presence in my tummy known. I knew I had to just run through it, but it was really uncomfortable. Even though I wanted the last mile to be my fastest, I realized it wouldn't be possible. At the end of the third mile I was behind two boys who looked to be about 9 or 10. They were running together so I couldn't pass them, and they were running in such a way they their legs flailed around, and their feet scuffed along the ground, making a terrible noise. That, combined with the GI distress I was experiencing, was really unpleasant. I passed the kids as soon as I got the opportunity. I ran as fast as I could to the finish and finished at about 28:30 according to the clock. I felt like I was going to be sick, but somehow I managed to keep that banana down. Since I didn't cross the start until after the timing had started, I knew my time was better than that.
Just after I finished and met up with James, the rain stopped. We found a spot on a small terrace in front of Memorial Union to watch Ruoxi finish the half marathon. After I was recovered, I decided to get the free beer I was entitled to. About 2 hours into the half marathon I began watching for Ruoxi. James and I both saw women that sort of looked like her, but we weren't sure. At almost 3 hours we figured she had finished already or something had happened. I checked my phone and saw that she had called, so I called her back. She was already home, having finished at about 2:10, which is a great time.
We drove over to Ruoxi's house, and the three of us went out to lunch at a Mongolian grill-type place. After that we went back to Ruoxi's and played ping pong. When we got tired we chilled out on the couch and talked for a few hours before going home. After we got home, I went online to check my results. The official results say 27:50, or 8:59 pace, which is significantly slower than thought I ran. I checked the data from my Garmin, and it said I ran 3.3 miles instead of 3.1. Even with the extra bit on the way to the start and forgetting to stop my watch, the course was probably a tenth of a mile longer than a 5K. Even with the extra distance I came in under 9 min/mile, so I'm happy.
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| Ruoxi and me showing off our medals. Hers doubles as a bottle opener. I think I need to do the half marathon next time. |
