We drove to Cocoa Beach on Saturday morning. Gary and Luke visited the Kennedy Space Visitor Center while I went to the race expo and then back to the hotel. The expo was crowded but I loved it! I got my race shirt and bib, and then I bought a 13.1 Christmas tree ornament, a 13.1 magnet for my car, two hand painted wine glasses, and a Space Coast long sleeved shirt. At the hotel I laid everything out, wanting everything to be ready for the next morning.
I copied this from my C25K post:
My race report for my first Half Marathon at the Space Coast Marathon in Florida in 2013.
I signed up for this HM because I’ve always been a space cadet. My dream when I was younger was to be an astronaut. I worked many years towards that dream, including internships at Kennedy Space Center and Langley. I worked at KSC in 1987 which was a difficult year for the employees there because of the continuing recovery work for the pieces of the Challenger which exploded the year before. I got to tour the space center in ways that the general public never got to, including walking aboard the Columbia shuttle. So when I saw that the medal for this HM/M was the Columbia shuttle, I was immediately sold. It was meant to be.
Training went great, and the trip down went great too. We flew down on Tuesday and spent Thanksgiving with my sisters. Then we drove over to Cocoa Beach on Saturday morning so I could go to the race expo while Gary and Luke went to the KSC visitor center. I bought all kinds of HM newbie stuff, including wine glasses, a magnet, and a shirt. I also got some socks for Luke since he really likes running specialty socks. I also signed up for a 2:30 pace group for the HM. I had been running around 11:15 – 11:30 pace during most of my shorter training runs, and I really thought I could do it for the HM duration. (As you’ll see below, overconfidence was not my friend!)
I set my alarm for 3:30 but ended up waking up at 3:00. It was just as well since I was enjoying my prep time. I got all of my morning “business” completed and all my stuff organized nicely, and I was very happy that I felt prepared and ready to go! I caught the 4:15am bus to the race site. I spent the next hour laughing at the southerners dressed in long sleeves and jackets and gloves in the 60 degree temps.
It was cool for strolling about, but this Iowa girl was more worried about it being too warm for running! I met up with the pace leader, Marcela, on starting line, and I was so excited!!!!!The start of the race was fantastic. They had a great singer for the National Anthem. The sound system cut out while she sang a few times, but that was actually a really good thing because all of the runners then began to sing. When it cut out the 2nd time , the runners sang even louder all the way to the end, and it was soooooo moving. Then they had a large screen playing video of a space shuttle Columbia launch with the countdown to the start of the marathon, and that was very cool too!!!
The next 30 minutes wasn’t as fun. I took off with the pace team and was doing okay, but my pulse started going up really quick. The crowd was difficult to navigate, and the pace leader was darting through folks in order to keep the desired pace to finish in 2:30. She actually was running faster than that so we’d be able to walk through the water stops. It became obvious to me after 2 miles that I wasn’t going to be able to keep up with this. I fell out of the pace group after 3 miles and tried to stay with the Galloway 2:30 pace group instead, but that didn’t work out either. By mile 6 the damage was done. My left hamstring was hurting, my feet had blisters starting, and I was worn out. I decided to give up on the 2:30 time and just try to not get discouraged. And I didn’t. I ended up walking/running in 2/1 intervals with various groups of people, and I had a really good time with them! The water stops were very entertaining with all of the costumes, and the spectators were great too. Gary and Luke were waiting for me at mile 10, and it was great to see them. Gary asked me how I was doing, and I told him that I wasn’t doing so good since I started out too fast, but that I’d survive. It really perked me up to see them!
I came into the last mile struggling, but the spectators really kept us going stronger than we felt. They were really amazing actually, and it made me feel even more strongly that I’m coming back to this next year. When I finished I started to well up with emotion, but then I got over it faster than I expected without even a single tear. They gave me my medal (which is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!) and my beach towel, and then I just stood there on the sideline feeling everything. My hamstring and my blisters pushed me over to the medical tent to get some ice and to change my socks, and I called Gary to have him meet me there. The people there were soooo kind. Gary and I headed off for me to get my free beer. (I thought of the Route 66 HM and decided that it wasn’t cold, so I HAD to drink my free beer!) Then we headed back to the hotel for me to shower and Luke to swim at the pool. The hotel gave us a 2pm checkout.
As for the race results…
After mile 6 I couldn’t seem to run more than a few minutes at a time, but I was keeping my overall pace pretty high with the Galloway intervals. When I look at the final results, it turns out that if I had started out running doing my own thing, I think I would have finished in the same time, but it would have been more pleasurable and consistent. I definitely learned a big lesson through this one! I looked at my Garmin times tonight and saw that I had a personal best on my 5K time by 2 minutes - it is not surprising at all that I was wiped out. However...
My chip time was 2:39:48!!!! I’m very, very happy that I finished in less than 2:40.
My overall place was 1513 of 2910, but my female overall was 925 / 2032 and female age division was 134 / 286. I was in the top half for my sex and age group! I did not expect that!!!!
I’ve already decided that I’m doing the Space Coast race again next year. I’ll probably be flying down there by myself though since I won’t have frequent flyer miles for my husband and Luke to come down, and that would get too pricey. I’m still leaning towards the FM, but I’m not 100% decided yet. Maybe I should do another HM first to do better than I did this time. Or maybe the Dam-to-Dam 20K in the spring will be good enough for exhibiting that lesson learned. I don’t know. Signups are in February, so I guess I’ll decide for sure by then.
No comments:
Post a Comment