My Women's Half Marathon took place on September 28th, in Music City U.S.A. The day before I pulled the kids out of school at 1pm so I can drive down for the expo. According to friends who ran the Country Music Half-Marathon, this expo was smaller. But that was fine by me. It was still pretty big, and for a first timer, I think anything bigger might have been TOO overwhelming. I picked up a couple of Sweaty Bands (pictured here and here), and a pair of sunglasses that do not fog up. A great shopping trip, and a perfect atmosphere for getting pumped up for the big day.
I had a relaxing evening at my parent's house with the kiddos, and slept as well as I could. I was nervous about missing the alarm, not getting there on time, all sorts of things that might make one nervous before their first big race. But when the alarm went off at 0430, I was up and at the coffee maker before anyone else was that morning. My two English muffins with strawberry jam, and away Dad and I went to the starting line downtown.
When I arrived, I looked for the Fleet Feet Training group, and my friends and I gathered together for some last minute conversations and encouraging words. We assembled at the starting line together, and after the gun went off, we ran! Tony was our pacer and kept the interval timer, telling us when to run and when to talk, but after the first couple of miles, we all kind of fell into our own pace. Tony and Carolina sped up, and Ken and Cathy fell a little behind me.
My overall time was 2:44:08, with my mileage splits from my Nike+ listed below.
| Mile | Time | Change | Avg Pace | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
| 12:32 | -- | 12'32"/mi | |||
2
*Fastest
| 24:11 | - 0:53 (7%) | 11'39"/mi | |||
3
| 36:04 | + 0:14 (-3%) | 11'53"/mi | |||
4
| 48:06 | + 0:09 (-2%) | 12'02"/mi | |||
5
| 1:00:24 | + 0:16 (-3%) | 12'18"/mi | |||
6
| 1:12:36 | - 0:06 (0%) | 12'12"/mi | |||
7
| 1:24:25 | - 0:23 (3%) | 11'49"/mi | |||
8
| 1:37:16 | + 1:02 (-9%) | 12'51"/mi | |||
9
| 1:49:12 | - 0:55 (7%) | 11'56"/mi | |||
10
| 2:01:30 | + 0:22 (-4%) | 12'18"/mi | |||
11
| 2:14:16 | + 0:28 (-4%) | 12'46"/mi | |||
12
| 2:26:55 | - 0:07 (0%) | 12'39"/mi | |||
13
| 2:40:01 | + 0:27 (-4%) | 13'06"/mi |
The official site also listed my time for the various distances throughout the race as follows:
- 5 km---36:27
- 6.7 mi---1:23:33
- 10 mi---2:01:42
- Pace---12:32
- Chip Time---02:44:08
- Clock Time---02:46:44
1. Finish vertically (not crawling over the finish line)
2. Finish under 2:45
3. Finish under 2:30
I achieved two out of three goals, which was not too bad. The first nine miles of the race were not too terribly bad, but I have to say the only thing I remember from the last 4.1 miles are burning feet. They felt like they were ON FIRE and the only thing that moderately sounded appealing was soaking them in a cooler full of ice.
I have to admit, the next day I was not running up the stairs two at a time, but I was also not sitting on the couch moaning and groaning about aches and pains either. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I rebounded from the race.
Now....are you ready for more exciting news????
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