Aquarium Run 1/2 Marathon 2009

So, I guess about a month ago, a co-worker asked me if I was going to run the Aquarium Run 5k.  For those of you unfamiliar, the Tulsa Aquarium is newish facility in Jenks.  I've never been, but my feeling is ,due to excessive ticket prices, their is little need for a 5k fundraiser.  At any rate, I said no, probably not, but I'd think about it.  She gave me a flyer, I think, because she thought the prospect of free admission to the Aquarium would grease the wheels a bit in getting me to run the race.  It was not the free admission.  I didn't care.  No, as a matter of fact, it was the 1/2 marathon option that she hadn't mentioned to me.  Now I was intrigued.  A couple of days later: "I think I'm going to do the half marathon."

In the two weeks leading up to the race my running has been spotty.  I ran the 5k last week so ran accordingly, so I thought.  Who knows.  I know very little about proper training methods.  Anyhow, the week ending with the 5k, I only ran 21 miles.  Then this week I was only able to run six miles each - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.  I knew that was going to be the case, but I still would have preferred to squeeze one more easy run in on Thursday.  Not for the sake of the race.  I just need the miles.  I had too much going on on Thursday, so the run had to be sacrificed.  Boo.  

On Friday night, I ate spaghetti, because I guess that's what you're supposed to do.  Of course it stormed that night, and I went to bed not knowing if I would be running in the rain.  Thankfully, the rain had subsided by morning, but of course since global warming has an airtight grip on humanity (sarcasm) it was pretty chilly and just windy enough to be uncomfortable.  And check the date on this blog post: it's May freaking 16th!!!  But, it was dry.  And I was thankful for that.  I ate a bagel with a little peanut butter on it which may have been a little much around an hour-fifteen before the race which may have been a little too close.  

I got to the Aquarium which was where the race started around a half hour before the gun.  The race started at 7:30.  Now, my running partner, God bless her, invited me to start with her and her normal group that she runs with on Saturday mornings.  I had told her earlier in the week that I wasn't sure that was such a good idea because, frankly, she's a faster, more advanced runner than I am.  As I've said before, I can hang with her on the six milers, but I wasn't too sure about a.) a half marathon b.) any race setting in general.  She's a pretty fierce competitor.  Be that as it may, she was insistent, so I lined up with her and a few others whom she was familiar with.  We went out at a 7:20 pace.  I was pretty certain that I wasn't going to be able to hang with that for the entire race.  The second mile was more of the same.  At that point, I started to fall back.  What was slightly discouraging was that it was mostly involuntary.  I wasn't feeling great and it was only mile two.  I still had eleven miles to go, and I wasn't sure I was going to have enough in the tank for the next four.  For the third, fourth, fifth miles I steadied my pace, but I wasn't sure what it was because the miles weren't marked very clearly on the course.  Or at least I wasn't seeing them.  And this course--I'm sorry organizers--wasn't great.  Rather than one out and back loop we had to run what amounted to the same loop twice.  And that sucks.  I don't know if other people have a problem with it or even care, but I hate it.  So once I started to head north for the second time the wind was really blowing.  And it wasn't just the resistance.  You know, truth be told, it wasn't blowing that hard.  But it was out of the north, it was cold, and the front of my shirt was sweaty.  It's cold and miserable.  Despite this I felt that I had finally settled into my stride so my running wasn't quite as labored as it had felt for the first half.  I finally got a look at a discernible mile marker and seven and found that I was still comfortably under an eight minute pace.  Fantastic.  My goal at the beginning was to be somewhere between 7:38 and 8 flat (1:40:00 - 1:45:00).  The former a dream; the latter a realistic goal.  I figured if I was able to maintain this pace heading north, then take advantage of the slight tail wind heading south I'd be able to be somewhere in between.  As it turns out I feel like the quick start I got off to was a double edged sword.  Starting out that quickly clearly zapped a good amount of energy, but on the other hand it gave me two quick miles and some seconds to give when I was slowing down at the end.  But, I think that, ultimately, it was more to my detriment than my advantage.  Heading south was indeed a bit easier.  I was getting more and more tired, but I was able to stay on pace.  By the time I got to the finish line I was pretty beat, but I looked back and some dude was coming up behind me so, to be sure not to let him sneak in in front of me, I sprinted to the finish line for about the last 100 yards or so.  I was actually pretty surprised that I had the energy to do that.  Probably a little energy burst from seeing the finish line and the people standing there.  In the end I finished at 1:43:28 (7:55).  I'm happy with that.

Since this was my first one, I know I can improve; however, I was not happy for most of this race.  Hopefully, it was a fluke, but I was in a fair amount of discomfort most of the way.  Duh, you're running.  But still.  I had previously been on two runs (non-race) of roughly this length, and I felt pretty good for both of them.  I'd love to run a marathon within the year, but if I had to dig this deep to run a half...I don't know.  I'm still setting my sights on that, but I just need to get more miles under my belt.  Definitely a higher volume of long runs as well.  For now, I'm done racing for a while.  I want to get back into the groove of running on a regular schedule.  I'm looking forward too, because we're going to start doing some quarters once a week.  So that should be fun and painful.

Overall, I'm excited.  I just ran a half marathon!  And finished with a pretty strong time, if I can say so myself.  Never, ever would I have thought that I would do this a year and a half ago.  Despite my misgivings about how I felt today, the only place to go from here is up.  13.1 t0 26.2.  It's gonna happen.