williamhathaway.com

Executive summary: Very under trained, ran the race in 1:56:11, enjoyed the experience despite being 21 mins slower than last year.

Long version: I had signed up for this race with high hopes in the fall of 2008.  Unfortunately, my overall training load has been extremely low and as of  Saturday morning, I wasn’t planning on running the race.  I did still want to go up to the race in Allentown, but was figuring on just cheering people and taking photos (I packed my mountain bike and 2 cameras).

My friend Jon and I drove up to the race expo in Allentown on Saturday afternoon so he could pick up his race packet and we also had to pick up race packets for our friends Lindsay and James who wouldn’t be able to make it up until right before the race on Sunday morning.

Even though I wasn’t going to run, I had been considering still picking up my race packet since I had already paid, and the packet usually includes a bunch of goodies.  One thing I didn’t want to do was  have to bother with was returning the timing chip that large races normally use.  If your timing chip doesn’t get returned (typically taken off your shoe at the end of the race just past the finish line), you get fined $25 – $35.  When Jon and I walked into the packet pickup area, it turned out that attached to the race bibs were a new type of disposable timing chip.  This meant there was no need to worry about returning the chip.  I figured that since my chip dilemma was solved, I might as well pick up my packet.

Jon and I then browsed the expo for a bit and got our free race windbreakers with the race logo.   After picking up the windbreaker, I realized that I would feel pretty lame if I wore the windbreaker but didn’t run in the race.  That got the wheels spinning in my head about whether I might actually be able to finish the race.

After waffling a bit I decided I’d run the race unless my legs were really bothering me in the morning (I’ve been having annoying leg and foot twitches/cramping for a while, likely caused by BFS).     I wasn’t expecting much since my longest run in 2009 was 9.3 miles, and I have been averaging about 16 miles a week lately.  I felt like I would be okay aerobically, but I was nervous that I’d end up hurting a muscle or tendon due to fatigue late in the race.

After a fairly restless night of sleep, my legs were feeling decent in the morning so decided I would do the race.  We had an uneventful trip to the parking area at the Allentown fairgrounds, met James to hand off he and Lindsay’s bibs and then walked over to the high school where the race would start.

The race area was crowded as usual, with people everywhere doing their pre-race rituals. There were just over 3000 runners in the half-marathon and another 600 or so in a 5k race that starts 10 minutes earlier.

Jon had been nursing a back injury and thought he would start off slow,  so we planned on running together in the beginning.  He was carrying my small camera (he took all the photos in my gallery except for the ones of him).  A lot of the photos are a little blurry, but that is what you get when taking photos while running.  Jon had also bought a pair of headphones for his iPod touch that included a voice recorder and made an audio recording of most of the race.

The first mile was pretty uneventful as the crowd of runners slowly started stretching out.  We passed the “big drum” group which has a really cool sound.

We ran about an even 9 minute pace for the first mile.  I could feel a little bit of a twinge in my left quad but it wasn’t strong, so I hoped it would loosen up.

Miles two and three we hit around 8:50s each and at the end of the 3rd mile I felt the twinge in my left quad go away so I started to get a little bit more confident on finishing.

Around mile 3.5 we  saw Lindsay and James going past us in the opposite direction, they looked strong. (Sorry James, we couldn’t get the camera to fire again soon enough to catch you.)

Around mile 5 we ended up talking to a woman named Marla who was running at our  pace.   The three of us were chatting and clicking off miles at a fairly even pace of about 8:55.    We saw a guy with a unique “hand” haircut around mile 5.5.

Around mile 6 we saw a neat looking medical vehicle that I was hoping I wouldn’t need a ride in.

Here are Marla and Jon when we are at about mile 7.5

Around mile 8.5 Jon said he was feeling pretty strong so he bid farwell and started pushing the pace (he would average about 7:30 pace for the remainder of the race).

Marla and I kept on running a steady pace but started to pass more people as a lot of people were slowing down later in the race.  I think we were running very even splits.

After we hit the 10 mile mark, the race was mentally easier as there was only a 5k to go.  I was feeling a little bit of pain in my left hip, but it seemed minor and my confidence that I’d be able to finish without some horrible biomechanical meltdown was starting to grow.

The crowd support was growing during the last two miles and that definitely helped.  It was really nice having run the course twice before and knowing exactly what was coming up as we closed in towards the finishing area.

I really like how the course ends:  you finish inside a stadium on an all-weather track.  The track just feels bouncy and fast and there is a ton of excitement in the air as you can hear an announcer call out names of finishers and the crowd is cheering for everyone.

We picked up the pace and probably passed around 10 people in the 250 meters or so that are ran on the track.  The clock time was 1:57:02 and my chip time ended up being 1:56:11  (8:53 average pace).

I was completely thrilled to have finished.    This was the slowest half-marathon I’ve ran, but given the reality of where I am fitness-wise now this felt like a real accomplishment.   I felt really sore after I finished (and the hilly walk back to the car didn’t help), but after a few hours and a nap at home I am feeling pretty good.

Links:

Metals4Mettle: Cool charity that collects marathon, half-marathon, and triathlon medals to give to struggling kids.  I’m donating my medals to this.

Official race results

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 7:26 pm and is filed under fitness, running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.