Half Marathon

On Saturday, I ran my first half marathon. I also managed to make it in under 2 hours which I'm rather proud of. I had two brothers doing the full marathon and they managed to do rather well. One in 4:20, the other in 4:10.

It's an interesting environment among runners. The atmosphere was great, the weather was perfect. You had people running in random costumes, bands playing on the side of the road, others cheering you on throughout the course, officers attempting to direct traffic. There were 5346 people who finished the half and 1923 people finished the full.

So we all line up for the race according to what you think you're projected time would be. We gathered around the 3:55 pace-setter. The air horn goes off for the start of the race, and... we just sit there. Gotta love huge races. By the time we start the race the time is 5 minutes 30 seconds. They do have the shoe chips to record your personal time. Even then, you can't run the pace you want as crowded as it is. So it's still shuffling along till there's enough room to maneuver.

My brothers and I all started off together, and stayed together for the first bit of the race. Just in front of us was the Elvis impersonator running in full costume. I'm sure he had to be frying by the time he finished. He did stop for a little while and danced in front of the gentleman singing some of Elvis' music at about mile 2.5. My brothers and I were still together at this point to. Once we hit mile 3, I decided to fore go any water and pulled ahead from my other two brothers. I don't think I got too far ahead of them. At the 10K mark my time ended up being 53:40. Crushed my previous 10K time of an hour two minutes. My brothers were 11 seconds behind my at that point. In between 7 and 8 they caught up to me and we ran a mile or so together. I hit my wall at mile 9.5. I just couldn't get my legs muscles to respond as well. My next two miles were pretty brutal. Slight uphill and couldn't muscle my way through it. My pace significantly dropped at that point. About mile 12, it started a slight decline, so I was able to pick up the pace and finish with a time of 1:57:40. My brothers were about two minutes ahead of me at that point, and had yet another 13 miles to finish. I'm not quite up to that yet. I'll do a couple more halfs before I try a full. Overall, I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to some more.

Just a couple of things learned about races:
1. I need to learn how to run and drink water from a cup at the same time. Most of the water sloshed down the front of my shirt. Not a great idea for the first day of December. I finally gave up trying to drink and run and would walk a short distance while drinking.
2. Luckily, I took my brother's advice and just wore shorts and T-shirt to run in. Had I worn my long-sleeved jacket, I would have been miserable. So good thing I didn't experience that lesson. Even after I finished my run, I was in short and T-shirt for the next 2 hours and the weather didn't bother me.
3. Do not wear socks with holes in them. Most of my socks have worn out and I really need to purchase some new ones. As I removed my sock I found a huge, and I'm talking largest I've ever had in my life, blister on the big toe of my left foot. I look at my sock and find a hole in it just as large as the blister. 13 miles of a shoe rubbing against your toe is not smart.
4. Beer is available for runners after they finish.
5. Those who finish first look worse off than those who finished later. As I watched all the marathon runners come in, quite a few under 3.5 hours had their faces contorted in pain, people helping them walk in. One guy I know would have dropped had somebody not been there to support him. Those runners later on looked tired but not so completely dead or in pain as those earlier.
6. Runners are friendly people. Quite a few would thank the police officers directing traffic during the race as they passed by.
7. Most people talk the first 3 miles. This drops significantly afterwards. The thing I didn't get were those on mile 13 still carrying on a conversation. If you can do that, you should have running a quicker pace.

All in all, fun stuff. But for now, I don't think I'll run till next year.