At the beginning of the year I set two New Years Resolutions. New Years Resolutions, as we all know, are those things you promise yourself you'll do, but then never actually accomplish. My resolutions were to run (and finish) the Cap City Half Marathon and the Columbus Half Marathon. Today, I was able to make good on that first resolution, and I'm feeling even better about that second resolution now.
Some things today went according to plan, while others ... not quite so much.
I got everything ready to go last night. The shorts, the shirt, the running shoes, the running socks, the iPod, my grandpa's lucky silver dollar, my lucky silver dollar, the bottle of Powerade Zero and the six packs of GU...everything. Prior to putting the iPod in the bag I checked the charge...looks good..no problem (or so I thought) ... more on that later.
I had my alarm set for 5:00am. I wanted to make sure I was up in plenty of time to take care of any last minute details and get downtown in plenty of time to deal with any possible traffic/parking issues. Got up, got showered, got dressed, even had time for a cup of coffee. I packed some cheerios and blueberry yogurt in a bag to eat once I got downtown for a little pre-race fuel.
I made it downtown with no problem, despite the construction and the event taking place, I made it downtown fairly quickly and found a parking spot on about 1-2 blocks from Columbus Commons where the race was going to finish. Now 1-2 blocks sounds close BEFORE you run a half-marathon...AFTER you run a half-marathon the idea of walking another 1-2 blocks just to get to your car is excrutiating.
I was just the second car to pull in to this parking lot and put my $4.00 in the night drop box to pay for my parking. Good thing too, because shortly after I got there the parking lot attendant got to work and put up a sign raising the price to $8.00 for "Event Parking" (Score 1 for me). I ate my cheerios and yogurt, put on my iPod and realized I had no place to carry my cell phone. I was supposed to be meeting a friend from work before the race and she had told me that she'd text me to let me know where to meet her. I sent her a quick text before leaving my car, letting her know that I would not be carrying my cell phone, but I'd try to find her amoung the 13,000+ people that were there..I never did find her.
Then I started packing the GU in the small pocket of my running shorts. That pocket is typically meant to carry a spare car key, maybe one pack of GU. I knew that I would need at least six packs for this race. I was able to squeeze 3 in the pocket and tucked 3 more in my socks. On the way to the starting line I realized that three sharp foil packets rubbing my ankles for 13.1 miles was not going to cut it. I was able to put one more packet in that pocket and realized that I'd just have to carry the other two while I ran (Score 1 for the Running god's sense of humor).
As with any well-organized marathon or half-marathon, there were hundreds of porta-johns near the starting area. I was lucky, while most people were lined up at the group of bathrooms lining Broad St., I saw several more on Long St. I was able to make my way to a porta-john that had not been used (much) and was still pretty clean (Score 2 for me).
I headed to the starting corrals and realized at that point that I was still wearing my glasses. Now I'm sure I had plenty of time to walk back to my car, put them in the bag, and make it back to the starting line. But I'm getting ready to run 13.1 miles and walking back uphill to my car didn't seem like a wise choice to me, so I ended up running with my glasses on, not something I like to do (Score 2 for Running god's sense of humor).
At about 7:30 they started telling people to load in the corrals. Despite what has happened in past years, they were bound and determined to get this event kicked off right on time. I'm guessing that President Obama's rally being right along the running course later in the day had something to do with them wanting to make sure things didn't drag out too long. As I'm standing in the Corral, now 20-25 minutes from the first group being scheduled to start, I realize that I need to use the restroom again. (Shut up Lauren). But now I'm in the corral, do I dare brave leaving the corral and finding a porta-john after so many more people have shown up. I'm sure that by now the lines are long and they're not nearly as clean. I decided to wait and just find one along the course, even though I know that it will be many miles before I find a set of porta-johns without a long line of other runners waiting (Score 3 for the Running god's sense of humor).
The race did get started on time, and as my corral approached the starting line the announcer let us know that the leaders were approaching the 4 mile mark! Now they were not putting a whole lot of time between the starts of these corrals, so those guys in corral A were moving! As my corral got going I was able to turn on the music on my iPod and got a decent pace going. My fear was that I would start too fast, but I felt good about the pace and tried to keep it slow and steady. At mile 1 I looked at my stop watch and was under 13:00. This was a lot better than I had hoped, and I thought that maybe I should slow down my pace a bit more, but decided I was feeling good, not too winded and I'd just keep it up. I wasn't real winded on my walk breaks, so when mile 2 came around at just about 25 minutes I was feeling pretty good. I was already 5 minutes ahead of my goal pace and liking it (Score 3 for me).
But wait, at about the 2 mile mark something else happened. My iPod, right in the middle of the Village People singing YMCA, just stopped. That happens sometimes when I run, I just figured that some sweat got on the touch screen and "confused" it in to thinking I had touched pause. I looked at the iPod but couldn't see the screen through the fogged up case I was carrying it in and had wrapped around my arm. So, on the next walk break, I took the case off my arm and removed the iPod. The screen was dark, so I pushed the button to bring up the screen...nothing. I pushed it again...nothing. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! My iPod, my only link to sanity on any long run had picked now, two miles in to a 13.1 mile run to stop working (Score 4 for you-know-who).
This is the first time I've ever run any event without the iPod playing music in my ear. I found something out though. As much as I like having that music playing, being on the course with all those people, combined with the band's, the DJ's and the spectators, I didn't NEED that iPod. If I'd have known that it would work out that way I just wouldn't have brought it with me. I will still continue to wear it, but if it goes out at another event it will not be so traumatic for me.
The only other "glitch" of the race came at mile 4. I had run the first four miles on a run 4/walk 2 pace. I had decided that at mile 4 I would switch to a run 3/walk 2 pace. So when I went to reset my interval timer on my watch, I accidentally reset the stopwatch instead, making it impossible for me to know for sure what my finishing time was until the results get posted. I think I was at about 50:00 when I reset the watch, because I seem to remember thinking that I had gained another 5 minutes on my goal pace, so I'm thinking I finished right around 3 hours and 5 minutes. If that's the case, not only did I beat my goal of averaging 15 minute miles, but I beat my "head in the clouds" goal of averaging 14:30 per mile (Score 4 & 5 for me...I win).
Thanks for all the support from my friends and family. I've got two other runs this year that I've already registered for. Both come this fall. One, of course, is the Columbus Half Marathon in October. The other is the Tunnel to Towers 5K in New York City in September. I'm looking forward to preparing for both of those events.
Official times have been posted...my official time was 3:08:06, so I was able to accomplish all of my goals for this run!
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