or the Herald-Dispatch Half as I found it was called.
I am beginning to think that I am a spoiled racer. Let me explain. I ran my first race in the CapCity Half in Columbus, an amazingly well run race with week long packet pickup, clearly marked course, scores of volunteers, great post-race food and services. I followed that race with the USAF Marathon at Wright-Pat and I’d have to say the armed services know what they are doing when they plan an event. From pre-race flyover to loads of post-race food like Rosa’s pizza, chocolate milk, oranges, bananas and more; from officers saluting at every turn to themed aid stations, from Air Force planes lining the homestretch to busses shuttleing between parking and start line (AND BACK!) this race was planned to a t- and fun. Those two races set the bar high and those that followed have not lived up to my expectations.
Next, I ran a small half in Dublin, Ohio. It was okay, a one-mile loop, with some decent pizza and good fruit. Then came the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon, a mess of a race. We parked more than a mile from the finish then caught a bus to the start. No buses were available to get runners back to their vehicles. 6 miles of the race were in Indiana through trashy neighborhoods with no scenery, on dirty streets with unenthusiastic aid stations. And just recently, I ran a half in Huntington, where the pre-race packet was my shirt and bib (with nary a pin to fasten the bib). The spaghetti meal was included in the registration, but the “expo” was a table with one person selling GU. We were very pleased to find the “expo” as the only sign for it was at the door, in the center of the block, where is was not visible from the street.
- 7.51- We started at the gun. My brothers and I began shuffling forward, waiting for the start line to start our watches and begin to “run” the race. Eventually, like those around us, we realized their was no start line, no place for our chip times to be started. Thus, our splits and watch times were a little further than normal. Not a bad first mile, right where I wanted to be actually.
- 7.21- Started shaving seconds off the average pace a little faster than a planned.
- 7.37- Started to warm up and relax and enjoy the race.
- 7.32- Settled into a pace I hoped I could hold longer than I did.
- 7.50- Back and forth, the miles seemed to be going back and forth, slower then faster.
- 7.34- Here’s the last mile that actually went fast. Jason and Andrew were struggling, and a couple of “experienced” runners passed us at the beginning of the mile. (By experienced, I mean they were about ten years older than me, but definitely had a light build than me and seemed to be cruising along effortlessly.) I drafted behind them for a mile then began to fall back as we hit a tiny bit of an incline.
- 9.25 (1.18 miles @7.59) Jason and Andrew caught up with me and we all missed hitting our split button on this mile. More than half way done and we were hitting an 8 minute pace. The total pace was still around 7:45)
- 6.32 (0.81 miles @7.58)
- 8.04- On this mile, I began to fall back behind my younger brothers then make mini charges to catch up. I also shed my outer layer and was down to a long-sleeved tech-shirt and short-sleeved tech-shirt.
- 8.12- Now the game was to hold on the best I could and try to make a push over the last mile and a half to two miles.
- 8.06- A better mile here, as Jason began to pull away from me and Andrew from him.
- 8.19- The guys moved just out of sight here and I struggled a bit to hold the pace. Throughout the race I never had any specific physical ailments, but at this point the legs were getting quite heavy.
- 8.16- Two mistakes were made here. First, I began to kick it up a notch for the finish at 12.5 instead of 13.0; I thought the stadium was just around the corner. After I recovered from my early charge and began to move better, I missed a turn that was unmarked because the volunteer had left her station. I had to turn around and re-pass several runners that I had just passed. It was a devastating development to my motivation at that point.
- 1.19 (0.17 miles @7.22) Motivation returned as I entered the stadium, ran almost half a lap, received a football and mustered my best 100 yard sprint to the finish line with the ball tucked under arm.
*I just looked for a picture or two to add to this post. I found out that the Marathon and Half Marathon had only two photographers at two locations taking and posting 1800+ total photos of 1600 runners. C’mon, man!
