The Pain and the Agony – Jenn’s First Half Marathon

I survived my first half-marathon. I say my “first” because I have no doubt that there will be others.

Yes, I’ve whined for weeks about not training properly, but I think I had a pretty good race despite that. I ended up with a time of 2 hours 48 minutes which translates to an average pace of 12:52 per mile. I used a walk/run strategy and had my watch set to alarm every 5 minutes to signal my walk break. Originally I was going to do a 1 minute walk break because I used this ratio in my training runs and it seemed to be the best I could do. The morning of the race though, I felt really good (the picture is a "before" shot in the hotel room) right from the beginning so I ran the whole first mile then decided to do 30 second walk breaks til mile 4, then 45 every 5 minutes from then on. Even when the going got tough, I stuck with this ratio and didn’t walk any longer than 45 seconds at any time.

So as far as the actual race report:
I arrived nice and early which is pretty unusual for me (you all know me well!) and then I hooked up with my cousin Travis who was running the full, his wife Micaela who was the designated cheerleader and her Dad Ron who was running his first full. I didn’t warm up – I mean it’s a 13 mile race, I’ll be lucky to have enough energy for that let alone a warm up! I visited the port-a-potty then found the appropriate place to line up which for me was between the 12 and 13 minute mile pace markers. Before the race started, they announced the presence of Dean Karnazes and the North Face Endurance 50 folks. Dean came to the mike and made a little statement about his cause, and let me tell you that guy is pretty hot and his body is amazing!! Shortly thereafter the race started. It took me about 5 minutes to make it to the starting line, and though I had just peed, I already was dying to go again. So I literally ran for two minutes before I came to the port-a-potties on the corner of the parking lot, the same ones I’d used when I got out of my car. I was happy to see that I wasn’t the only person with the same thought – quite a few people stopped. It wasn’t ridiculously large, 3800 people with about 3000 doing the half and 800 doing the full. I paced with a lot of the same people for most of the race and talked to quite a few. My race outfit – a special edition Skirt Sports running skirt and hot pink tank – garnered some attention. I had several compliments on it & women asking where I’d gotten it. My stock response was, “if I’m gonna be slow, I’m gonna be stylin’!” The course started on the road at the Family Arena – an event venue in St Charles then stayed on the road through downtown St Charles. The turn around was at a park and the way back was on the Katy Trail which I had spent a lot of time running on when I lived in Columbia. There were a few supporters on the course, mainly locals sitting in their lawn chairs clapping or holding up a sign on the first half. For most of the way back it was pretty quiet and solitary except for the fellow runners.

I felt totally awesome for the first 8 miles of the run. My heart rate was hanging out in the 150s or low 160s, and my breathing was even. I was in that comfort zone where it felt like I could go on forever. I developed blisters on the bottom of the toes of my right foot by mile 6, but they weren’t hurting – just a bit uncomfortable. From miles 8 – 10, I started to feel it a bit in my legs and I noticed my heart rate was staying up between 167 - 172, but I still felt really strong. At the 10 ½ mile point we were circling by the Arena, a nice man yelled “cold beer here” and I was handed a Pooh bear Dixie sized cup of Bud Light. One of the runners next to me asked if it was really beer, when I told her yes, she was bummed because she thought he was just kidding! Right after the beer, we passed near the finish line which first of all was a HUGE tease, but the crowd was quite large and cheering loudly. Folks were lining the finish chute as well as the trail we were on. My cousin Micaela was holding up a sign for me – she’s the best athletic supporter anywhere! Former sorority life prepares one well for making cute signs on the fly ☺ After seeing her and passing the crowd, it all started to fall apart. From mile 11 onward, each step was getting painful and all I could think about was hitting the finish line. During my walk breaks, I had developed an odd, limping gait, and I had to keep saying to myself, “start running, you can do it.” I was determined to not deviate from my 45 second walk break and I’m proud to say that I didn’t!! At about mile 11 ½, there was a pretty sizeable hill as we climbed the river bank back to the road. My timer did not alarm for a walk break during that point so I slowly and painfully ran up that whole freaking hill! After the hill, I could see the Arena in the distance but there was absolutely no way I could pick up the pace. I was still moving forward, but it was more of a shuffle than a run at that point.. I was almost in tears as I rounded into the parking lot but folks were cheering, one gal motioned to me to “raise the roof,” another yelled to chase down the two runners in front or me, all encouraging and awesome! When I finally hit the finish line and heard the announcer call my name I was so relieved. I really didn’t know what to do because if I stopped, my legs hurt so I kept walking around for about 10 minutes. I said Hi to Micaela then went to redeem the free beer coupon they handed me at the finish line. Odd don’t you think that they give you a free beer and hot dog after completing a road race?? I stretched a little bit and man my hamstrings were tight! Then I went back over to Micaela’s cheering area to wait for Travis. He had completed the first half around 2:10, so we were looking for him after 4 hours. While we were waiting, Dean Karnazes came by for the 21 mile point and it was hilarious to see all of the people running with him. It was just like that scene in Forrest Gump where Forrest has all the runners hanging on his every word. I got a picture as he ran by and Micaela got a shot when he finished about 20 minutes later.

Not too long after Dean finished, Travis came by the arena – he told Micaela that “this sucks” but he still looked strong. I knew we had about 20 minutes or so til Travis finished so I headed over to the North Face expo area where Dean was signing autographs and taking pictures. Luckily there wasn’t much of a line (small race, probably not a ton of people knew about him or had read his book unlike when he’s going to run New York or DC Marine Corps). I shook his hand, told him he was very inspiring and asked him to sign my race number. I told him it was my first half and that I had started running this year and lost 25 pounds, he said “That’s awesome! Congratulations and keep it up!” He personalized the autograph as shown. I did have my camera, but no one with me to snap a picture, besides I loved the idea of my first half mary having his autograph.

After meeting Dean, I went to cheer for the runners as they entered the Arena parking lot heading for the finish line, then cheered for Travis as he came in. It had started to rain lightly by this point, so I said goodbye to Micaela then went to find Trav and say bye to him. He was at the North Face expo area but they had already packed up and were on the bus. Dean came off the bus briefly, and Travis got the chance to meet him and shake his hand and thankfully I was there to snap a picture. Aren’t they both ripped?? Hard to tell the difference, except our family isn’t Greek.

I went back to the hotel just as the clouds opened up and the downpour began. I took a much needed shower then went to lunch with my Mom. I had intended on flying back to Norfolk that evening, but the plane was overweight so they asked for volunteers to stay over the night. I volunteered and was given a $250 flight voucher, a free night at the Airport Hilton and breakfast. Not a bad deal, and honestly the plush hotel bed was much more comfortable than the rented furnishings in my Virginia apartment. Now as I type this, I’m finally boarding a plane back to Virginia and the pain …. Well let’s just say that everything from the waist down hurts!!