now the day of...
Race report:
The traffic was not moving at all when DH dropped me off at 6:35am a mile from the race. It ended up being a good thing, because instead of jogging to warm up, I got a nice, easy walk in. By the time I found a restroom, then stretched out, I was pretty much ready to run.
I found a 13:30 pace group, but since it would have given me a 3 hour end time (and I wanted less than 3 hours), I decided my best game plan was to adopt a comfortable pace and keep the pace group behind me.
By the time I got past the first mile, I never saw the pace group again. But I was okay with that, since I had every intention of keeping them behind me. Little did I know how far back I'd keep them...
I adopted a comfortable but not furious pace. I hit the first mile at 15:something or other, but since I was a good three minutes back (I figured that out when I checked the web results) from the starting line, I just decided to gauge my time between the time clocks at each mile and my watch.
By the time I hit mile 4's water station, they were out of water. Since my running friends taught me to race exactly the way I train (thank you for the advice), I had my usual hydration pack on. Mile 6 had the same problem. People who lived along the race route were handing out water and hoses for the runners.
DH told me my 5K pace time (gotta love text notices from the race course) was such a surprise that he thought it was wrong. (Yes, I know I'm not telling. ) He had to readjust his time to meet me at our agreed meeting spot around mile 8.2 with my new bottle of ice water and a half of a pb sandwich. (It wasn't far from our house.) This turned out to be a lifesaver considering the water issues on the first part of the course.
All in all, I stuck with my training plan (ie power walk the hills & do my best to stay consistent in my pace on the flats & downhills). I kept having people use ME as their pacer!!!! That was weird! I'm such a newbie!
I think I thanked every police officer and crossing guard on the half course, and several thanked me profusely for the overtime.
My MP3 issues came back to taunt me again, I had adjusted it (before I outsmarted it yesterday) and set it to shuffle and repeat. It picked about a bunch songs then proceeded to keep repeating them. I finally caught on around mile 10 and had to dig that sucker out. By mile 11 I finally fixed it.
Mile 11 was also a milestone since pretty much all the halfers were walking it. 2/3 of that mile was uphill. By this point I was finally pooping out a little, but my then latest running partner and I were content to just sort of power walk, then jog then walk some more. Once we passed mile 12, it was mostly downhill, with one more small uphill before flattening out.
Then one really steep downhill and then into Akron Aeros stadium. THAT was way cool. The stadium was about half full and I came in pretty much by myself. I got lots of cheers and claps. I loved that last bit of the run, I had goosepimples and shivers going up my spine.
The weather was great, I don't think it broke more than 67 degrees (I forgot to look when I got home, but the high today was supposed to only hit 69). In fact, I did the first mile & a half wearing a sweatshirt (apparently how I got designated pacer, I found out later, since it was a really bright color).
Now all I need is the marathon people to get me my shirt, since the person I got my packet from lied and told me to get it today. I'm going to send an email just to be sure. I worked really hard & I WANT my shirt. That was the only sucky part of the whole experience, other than the lack of water at the stations.
Did I forget anything???.....
Right...race time... I rocked. Total time: 2 hours 44 minutes and some odd seconds. Compared to my last week's 13, that takes off approximately 17 minutes.
The traffic was not moving at all when DH dropped me off at 6:35am a mile from the race. It ended up being a good thing, because instead of jogging to warm up, I got a nice, easy walk in. By the time I found a restroom, then stretched out, I was pretty much ready to run.
I found a 13:30 pace group, but since it would have given me a 3 hour end time (and I wanted less than 3 hours), I decided my best game plan was to adopt a comfortable pace and keep the pace group behind me.
By the time I got past the first mile, I never saw the pace group again. But I was okay with that, since I had every intention of keeping them behind me. Little did I know how far back I'd keep them...
I adopted a comfortable but not furious pace. I hit the first mile at 15:something or other, but since I was a good three minutes back (I figured that out when I checked the web results) from the starting line, I just decided to gauge my time between the time clocks at each mile and my watch.
By the time I hit mile 4's water station, they were out of water. Since my running friends taught me to race exactly the way I train (thank you for the advice), I had my usual hydration pack on. Mile 6 had the same problem. People who lived along the race route were handing out water and hoses for the runners.
DH told me my 5K pace time (gotta love text notices from the race course) was such a surprise that he thought it was wrong. (Yes, I know I'm not telling. ) He had to readjust his time to meet me at our agreed meeting spot around mile 8.2 with my new bottle of ice water and a half of a pb sandwich. (It wasn't far from our house.) This turned out to be a lifesaver considering the water issues on the first part of the course.
All in all, I stuck with my training plan (ie power walk the hills & do my best to stay consistent in my pace on the flats & downhills). I kept having people use ME as their pacer!!!! That was weird! I'm such a newbie!
I think I thanked every police officer and crossing guard on the half course, and several thanked me profusely for the overtime.
My MP3 issues came back to taunt me again, I had adjusted it (before I outsmarted it yesterday) and set it to shuffle and repeat. It picked about a bunch songs then proceeded to keep repeating them. I finally caught on around mile 10 and had to dig that sucker out. By mile 11 I finally fixed it.
Mile 11 was also a milestone since pretty much all the halfers were walking it. 2/3 of that mile was uphill. By this point I was finally pooping out a little, but my then latest running partner and I were content to just sort of power walk, then jog then walk some more. Once we passed mile 12, it was mostly downhill, with one more small uphill before flattening out.
Then one really steep downhill and then into Akron Aeros stadium. THAT was way cool. The stadium was about half full and I came in pretty much by myself. I got lots of cheers and claps. I loved that last bit of the run, I had goosepimples and shivers going up my spine.
The weather was great, I don't think it broke more than 67 degrees (I forgot to look when I got home, but the high today was supposed to only hit 69). In fact, I did the first mile & a half wearing a sweatshirt (apparently how I got designated pacer, I found out later, since it was a really bright color).
Now all I need is the marathon people to get me my shirt, since the person I got my packet from lied and told me to get it today. I'm going to send an email just to be sure. I worked really hard & I WANT my shirt. That was the only sucky part of the whole experience, other than the lack of water at the stations.
Did I forget anything???.....
Right...race time... I rocked. Total time: 2 hours 44 minutes and some odd seconds. Compared to my last week's 13, that takes off approximately 17 minutes.