Up is BAD, Down is GOOD!

This picture was taken from the Patio of our hotel room! It was a beautiful dessert setting.

So I finished and you can cheat and look at my race time to the right. Yes, it is a new PR and I'm totally happy about that. I was looking for a bit better of a time but for me it was a rough race! Since I've been running really consistently now for about a year and a half I thought my time would shoot up a bit more, so I was shooting for 2:10 which is just under a 10 minute mile. I'm trying not to dwell on the fact that I didn't hit my personal goal since I did set a personal record. Yeah!

Here are the gory details for those who are interested (it's LONG.)

We drove to Tucson on Saturday afternoon. Getting to the packet pickup (no expo) at around 3:30. We got our race bibs, chips and shirts which are really nice. The shirts are a white technical tee from Mizuno. They weren't really friendly or helpful at the packet pickup. We wanted a map to the start of the course or at least directions. They handed us a lousy course map and kind of pointed in the direction of the start a few miles away. I asked what time they suggested being there, wondering what parking would be like and the volunteer said, "well the race starts at 7:00 so you better be there before that." DUH? Lindy had read me an excerpt from Runners World on Saturday about what a great race this was, but I was starting to wonder. More on that later.

Scott and I used his iphone to find the course and drove the entire course. I had an elevation map with me that I had printed out on their website. It was SOOOOO off! I think they must have just taken an altitude measurement at each mile marker and plotted it on the map, but I'm not sure if it was even that accurate. A lot of hills can come and go over the course of a mile. As we drove I started getting a knot in my stomach. By the end I was downright sick! I train on completely flat terrain and the two hill runs I did had totally kicked my butt. Scott was trying to talk it up, how he was excited and that it would be an adventure. I know he was only saying that to try and calm me down because I was seriously wondering what I had gotten ourselves in to. He drove me over to a movie theater and the movie did take my mind off my troubles for a little while. We checked into our hotel and had a nice pasta dinner. We set our alarm clock for 5:30 and I actually slept pretty well. Because of a comment a friend made to me on Friday I did have a dream that I wore heelies on the race and popped in my wheels on the downs - wheeeeee!

Race Morning - I put on my new sports bra (see comment under Race Day Gear about this) my new race tee shirt, my old trusty shorts and add my vest and sweatshirt. I should have worn my lucky socks, but they were dirty. I'm still wondering if I'll run in my vest as it's cold out this morning. We drive to the course, parking is well marked and plentiful. The parking area is right next to the start line. As we walk to the course I see a line a mile long for the porta potties which is bad, because I definitely want to go to the bathroom one more time. I find another porta pottie with a shorter line but the wait is still about 10 minutes. Some people in line are commenting that there seems to be less toilets and more people than last year. You would think someone would have done the math, hmmm.... Scott goes to find the gear check and comes back to let me know there is a gear check, but no bags. So after the porta potty we wrap our jackets and my vest and car key up in a sweatshirt and attach our gear check tag. When we ask why there aren't bags they tell us they are trying to be green. Scott and I think that's fine, but it would have been nice to know that we needed to bring a bag. Maybe they could have at least had some used grocery bags.

We're off to the starting line and get there just in time! We kiss goodbye and Scott leaves me in the dust. The crowd thins out quickly and we're heading uphill, but not for long. We have a half mile down hill before our first long hill. I get a great time on my first mile and even with the hill on mile two I'm happy with my pace. The next several miles are more of the same, up, down, up, down. Even with my slow uphills I'm still really happy with my time at the halfway point, even beating my best 10k time and feeling good. It's an out and back course so I know what I'm in for for the rest of the race. I see Scott at the turn around, he looks good and I feel good. Half way done!

I leapfrogged the whole race with three noteworthy groups/individuals. The first is an old man in a yellow shirt. I called him Old Man Yellow Shirt (say this with an American Indian accent.) He was doing awesome. I passed him once around mile 8 but he passed me again on the next uphill and I never caught up to him again, even though I saw him walk a few times. I found out later that he is 75 years old! He won in his age group (of two people.) I was a little humbled that I couldn't get past him, as I knew I was almost half his age. The second group of note were two girls in cute matching purple tanks, I called them the matchy matchy girls. I enjoyed watching them for a few reasons. The first is that they reminded me of what Lindy and I look like running together. If Lindy and I got matching tank tops we would have looked like them. One girl was tiny and trotting along like it was a walk in the park. The other girl was taller and like me was,"a heavy runner" but she looked fit (I hope I look like that too.) She was clearly the weaker link in the duo but doing great. Anyways, they were having fun, chatting occasionally and they had a great support crew following them and taking lots of pictures. They were just ahead or behind me for the first 5 miles. The other reason I liked them is because I passed them around mile 5 and didn't see them again (that's the competitive spirit in me.) The last group of note were the run/walk girls. They would run for a few minutes and then walk for a few minutes. For miles about 5 - 9.5 we leapfrogged. I would pass them on their walks and they would pass me on their runs. They were making good time and I was jealous of their walks. They were chatting and having fun and obviously keeping a good pace. I did pass them on one of their walks on a hill and never saw them again, so I guess they must have faded. I wouldn't mind looking into the run/walk strategy for a marathon but that's a different story.

A note about music. I had spent some time arranging a playlist for the race. I chose some favorite tried and true, fun songs, and then on a tip from Amy and Brian I looked into some techno beat mixes you can download for free. They are basically synthesizer music, no words, and they are set to a bpm that is supposed to correlate with your desired pace. I ended up listening to that almost the whole time. I started off with a few favorites songs and then this started and went for an hour. It was so great. I found that it was just a beat to move to but no words to distract me and I had a lot to think about as you can see from this LOOOOONG post. After it ended I skipped through a few more songs but none of them were working for me so I went back to this. I think I listened to it for all but three songs. So thanks to Amy and Brian for that!

At the half way point I was thinking I might really beat my goal, but that realization faded around mile 9 and I realized around mile 11 that I probably wasn't even going to meet my goal. That was frustrating.

Miles 9.5 to 10.88 are uphill and that's what killed me. I hit a wall around mile 10. In my head I was expecting to go down hill or at least flat at mile 10. That's what the elevation map showed and that had seemed about right when we drove it, but we didn't set our odometer. Around mile 10.25 I was really fading. I looked at my watch and my pace was slower than 12 minutes. I'm sure I slowed even more but I was really trying to push through it. Pretty soon my arms, legs and neck started to get cold and tingly. I was thinking how strange that was when the feeling spread to my cheeks and the top of my head and I realized I was totally light headed. I stopped and walked for a few seconds and it went away. I forced myself to walk to the next light pole and then started my slow climb again. Pretty soon that down I was expecting finally showed up! I cruised down mile 11 - my second fasted mile during the race. I was hoping to make up some time I lost on that uphill. My strategy was working until the last uphill (again, this wasn't on the map.) I couldn't believe that I had to stop and walk AGAIN with only about a third of a mile to go. A guy ran by and said, "only a quarter mile to go." I know he was trying to be encouraging but I'm thinking - "Do you think I don't know that? Do you think I WANT to be walking?" I worked through the dizziness and my first side stitch of the race - STUPID- I guess that fast last mile might have been too fast? I finished strong, but almost 2 minutes over my goal!

The finish line was great. They called out your name as you crossed handed you your medal and shuttled you into an area with drinks, bagels, fruit etc. After some passing nausea I felt pretty good but a little sick to my stomach. I met up with Scott and he told me his time, which was under his goal. We exchanged a few race tidbits as we snacked and I recovered. I was really frustrated with myself for a few minutes, and jealous that Scott had beat his goal, but I quickly got more positive, especially since I really think I gave it my all. There were a few vendor booths but we pretty much just collected our stuff and headed for our hotel and the shower!

The ball of my left foot had bothered me a little the second half of the race, but I was really surprised to take off my shoe and see a monster blister. I had a smaller one on my right foot too. I'm not sure what caused this because I haven't really had blister problems before. Maybe the hills, or the fact that the road sloped a lot, especially on the second half of the race. Also, my left hip has been a little sore for a few days, so maybe my stride was off. I don't think this slowed me much, if at all, and it's kind of like a badge of honor, right?

I had heard this race billed as a John Bingham (frequent contributer to Runner's World) racing event but the ONLY sign of that I saw was the mile markers had a penguin and John Bingham racing printed on them. I don't think there was any other involvement from him. So I think another group must have taken over in recent years. The race itself was fine, but I think they've got some room for improvement.

Overall it was a great race. I plan to make a half marathon an annual tradition for at least the next few years. I guess I left some room for improvement. I'll be looking for a flatter course next year, or at least preparing more if I repeat this race.

Thanks to all of you for your support! It was fun to have your supportive posts, texts and phone calls in the days leading up the race and of course right after. It's so sweet that you care!

So ladies, how far are we running Tuesday?