Birmingham, AL
Race day... the alarm goes off early, as always...
Chad and I were both pretty quiet in the morning... not much to be said at 4:am I suppose...
We choke down some breakfast and get to the race site early... real early... Meet up with Kendrick and crew at sweat check... I was damn near catatonic at this point, realizing that shit was about to get real, real quick... I tried to stretch as best I could, but couldn't ever seem to get over the excitement of race day... so many people, noises, posturing... that, and the fact that I had um, "over hydrated" the night before made for several pit stops before the race...
During one of these pit stops, I end up losing Chad and Kendrick, but actually end up FINDING David and Jennifer Jones (hmm, not a coicidence in my opinion!)... So I resolve to start the race with them, and just run on my own... Dr. David is a much more accomplished runner than me, and Dr. Jen was going to be walking it with a friend.... So at least I had some people to hang out with at the starting line...
Then the gun goes... wait, no it didn't... no gun... what a crock of anti-climactic shit!
So we're off an running....
Thanks to my nifty Garmin 310xt, which had arrived literally 15 minutes before I left the day before, I was pacing myself at a little over 10 min/mile... too fast I knew, but I was feeling good, good enough to hold that pace... Cranked out the first 10k (6.2 mi) in 1:04:49, which was 11 minutes faster than my first 10k... Right around mile 4, there was a high school drum line on the side of the street, which to me, was the best entertainment I saw all day...
Things were going well during the first 8 or so miles... the people I were passing (or who were passsing me) were all joking, laughing, talking, and goofing off (much different from how things were at mile 11), which kept me in good spirits... I was feeling good and by the time mile 9 rolled around, decided to readjust my finish time goal from 2:30 to 2:20... maybe a little cocky, but like I said, I was feeling that good...
The course itself wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be... yes, it was tough because of the fact that I was running 13.1 miles, but I had heard horror stories about how hilly it was... turns out, it wasn't as bad as I had heard-in fact, the hill that I trained on was worse than any hill on the course... the inclines were gradual, then the downhills were enough to make you feel it (but, you really don't FEEL the downhills until about 3 days after the race!)
My pace was starting to slip and I knew it... and didn't really care... I just wanted to finish, and not have to walk any of the way...
So during my training, my longest run was 10.8 miles... I was confident that I'd be able to make it another 2.3 during the real race, so I hadn't asked Kendrick to give me any longer run than that... I should have...
I hit the dreaded "wall" at around mile 11.5... and it was every bit of awful as you hear about... from mile 11 on, the race became not fun anymore... no one around me was joking or laughing or having a good time-it was all work for them too... I fought every step of the way until crossing the finish line... My Garmin kept telling me I was getting closer and closer, but it seemed like it was taking longer and longer to get there... I'd say around mile 12, I seriously considered walking....
But it was also at mile 12, maybe 12.5, that I started seeing runners with medals on walking towards me on the sidewalk, presumably to get in their car to leave, so I knew I was getting close... And indeed I was...
At this point, the tank was empty... the legs were heavy... I had absolutely nothing left, but somehow found enough in me to pick up the pace when I saw the finish line/chute... Just like during my first triathlon, about 200 yards out, the smiles started...
I crossed the finish line in 2:19:52, with an average pace of 10:41/mi... not fast by any means, but for me, it wasn't about the speed... it was about crossing the finish line...
L: me, snagging a photo in front of the fancy finisher backdrop (that I did not pay to use-thanks Sarah)
R: me and my coach, Kendrick Gibson, whom I nicknamed "The Magician" after this race... He turned me from a 5k'er to a Half-Marathoner in 14 weeks... maybe his nickname should be "The Miracle Worker" (ok, maybe that's a little blasphemous)
So the race was great, the recovery was not... I have never before in my life felt so exhausted and weak (for days afterwards, even though I stuck to the recovery nutrition plan like I was supposed to)... I practically laid on my couch for 2 days after the race, and, like during my training runs, just hobbled around when I needed to walk anywhere...
A text from Kendrick that afternoon read, "Congrats! You're a true endurance athlete now, welcome to the club! I really think you're one of those guys who can do anything they want! Let's keep all cylinders firing and start your best tri season ever!"
This was in response to the following picture message I sent him:
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