SeaWheeze Half Marathon Race Recap

Race morning dawned at a lovely 64 degrees and overcast.  The weather was perfect for a half marathon.  Our hotel was about a 10 minute walk from the race start line and so we delayed heading down for as long as we could.  Finally around 6:30 we started the walk to the start line.  In our hotel lobby, the race had set up a fresh fruit stand and free coconut water.

We arrived to the race site and the DJ had the scene pumping.  The area was crowded with lots of people but we were able to run into the expo building to use real potties!  It was so nice to have indoor real bathrooms to use.  Then we began the trek to the starting corrals.  It was very crowded and people weren't moving into the corrals very well.  There was plenty of space but everyone just hung near the entrances to each corral.

We split up since Mandy wanted to go for a faster time than the rest of us.  She moved forward with wave 4 and we wished her luck!  The remaining three of us decided we needed one last potty stop and so we snuck out of the corral to visit the porta-potties.

We managed to work our way back into the corral and just minutes later it began to move forward.  Before we knew it, the race was starting.  The corral system worked really well to space out the racers but even so the first mile was crowded.

The first few miles passed by quite easily with some running through the city areas including China Town.  Some of the fun sights during this section were the tall bike riders.  They were along an elevated highway and so much fun to watch.  I even got to watch one mount his bike and it definitely was interesting to see how he got up onto such a tall bike.  Also, in China Town we got to see people doing Tai Chi and run past the Chinese Gardens that I had read about.

All along the course were km markers and they all had fun sayings on them.  The course also had signs marking when it would narrow.  My favorite though were the signs along pedestrian areas that asked others to Respect the Runners and avoid the course since a lot of the course was on the paved walking trail system.

Somehow the one sign I took a picture of turned out a little like a "That's What She Said" joke.

We had a 5K section that crossed over to Kitsilano...this included the biggest hill on the course which was actually the bridge to cross False Creek.  Just before making the bridge crossing you came up a short, steep hill from False Creek to a trio of cheering drag queens.  They had so much energy cheering on all the runners.  This was the first place where the course doubled onto itself so you finally got to see other runners.  I kept my eyes peeled hoping I would spot Mandy to cheer her on...and I did near the end of the bridge.  The cheering spectators were definitely the loudest when we were along Kits Beach!

As I returned from Kitsilano and was crossing back over the bridge one of the tall bikes happened to be riding by and playing some tunes.  The song that he had blasting almost brought me to tears...I definitely got emotional for a minute.  The song was Ain't Nothing Going to Break My Stride and it has special meaning for me.  This song is the song that I associate with my dad and running.  My dad is a strong athlete and he was big into the running boom when I was a little girl.  I'm sure my sisters and I developed our love of running from our dad! This song was part of a marathon recap video that I remember seeing as a little girl and I can't help but think of him and all that he has taught me about being the best me when I hear it.

I pulled it together...it was just mile 7 and I had 6 more to go! Around mile 8, we finally entered Stanley Park and the seawall.  We were welcomed to the seawall by some people in antique swim costumes.  All along the Stanley Park portion of the route there were lots of fun sights and cheer sections.  The mermaids were definitely a Lulu touch!

My favorite was the drum group...you could hear the pulse of their beat for quite a while before you passed them and it just resonated within you.  At this point in the race I thought I would start to deteriorate but surprisingly I just kept having more and more fun.  The fun distractions kept me going from km to km and the water stops were frequent.  My goal for the race was to run this as a training run and focus on not walking.  I only walked during the water stops.

Definitely smiling with the SeaBreeze at SeaWheeze!

Crowded course but very manageable.  

I got very confused on timing along the way.  About the 16KM mark I checked my watch and thought that I was near a 2:15 time overall.  I always hold to the belief that you shouldn't try to do math while running.  It just never works out but it does help distract you!  My math was definitely wrong as I realized when the 2:20 pacers started to pass by me.  I felt strong so I couldn't figure out what was happening with my time.  The last 1KM marker seemed like the longest KM ever in my life.  I had definitely picked up the pace and it was tough to maintain at that point in the race.

Finisher pic in front of the Olympic torch! 

I finished up and loved hearing my name as I crossed the finish line.  My finish time was 2:18:50 which was much better than I had expected.  I ended up running 8 of the 13 miles with a pace within 3 seconds of each other.  That's my best pacing of a half marathon ever...and my final mile was one of my fastest miles in a half marathon ever!  After crossing the finish, we soon received a bottle of water and our finishers medal.  Then they clipped on a kit with some aromatherapy vials for each of us and lastly we received a finisher premium to keep us grooving throughout the year...skullcaps earbuds.  They also gave each of us a wet washcloth which felt great to wipe off the grit from the run.

There was such a mass of people at the end that it really was hard to find my friends and regroup.  I ended up running into Jules in the food line and then we found Mandy and Pauline inside the expo hall.  We were all getting cold and worn out so we didn't stay around the race site too long.

Having Fun When You Can't Run

We left off with my foot in massive pain following the Valentine's Day 8K... since then I've been taking a lot of rest for my foot and focusing on swimming and even some aqua-jogging to keep up my fitness.

On Friday, there was a call put out on Facebook to help staff the water stop for the Half Marathon training group.  I had been joining the group on the weekly long runs until my injury and have missed seeing all the newbies.  There is something so energizing to see people who are running that distance for the first time ever.

It's fun to chat with them on the run too.  They are soaking up knowledge and so eager to complete their first half marathons.  It is a very unique group and I'm so very lucky to help volunteer with them.

Our water stop was set up on the trail where they got to pass by us twice.  It was a very cold morning on Saturday...so cold that the water we spilled froze on the trail sidewalks!  We had a good group of people working the water stop and cheering on the runners.  Check out this video that Chuck from Podium Images made of the run.  He is a great athlete and artist...the editing he did is amazing! You'll spot me in the video in my red jacket handing out the cups of water. I swear I was having a lot more fun than it looks like in that particular pic!

If you are in the area, don't forget you still have time to sign up for the Bentonville Running Festival Half Marathon on April 6th! Sign up at www.runbentonville.com.

Bentonville Half Marathon Race Recap

On Saturday, Bentonville hosted its 3rd Bentonville Half Marathon and Running Festival. 

With over 1800 runners I was really surprised to find an easy parking space.  I got to the race site about an hour early which gave me plenty of time to get parked and meet up with friends.  I was a little disappointed to see that the race had just a few porta-potties set up.  I got in that line early and tried to not think about how I normally go to the bathroom 20 times before a race!

Weather this March has been warmer than normal and race morning was no exception.  Even though temps were warm I still saw a wide range of apparel choices from the other runners.  I went with some Nike half tights and my Nike Rush Running race team singlet.  This was my first time to wear the new singlet and it was actually much cooler than I thought it would be.  I also added my pink Headsweats visor since it was a sunny morning.

Rhonda and I before the race

The race was fairly uneventful...except for the fact that I mentally checked out of the race around mile 3.  It was warm and my right hip was feeling tweaked and I just didn't feel into the race.  I knew that pretty much at all times I was within one mile of the start/finish line and it was sooooo very tempting to get a DNF.  I've never had a DNF and thankfully my friends talked me out of that.  I joined up with Mandy and Pauline around mile 5 and we did a 4/1 run/walk ratio for the rest of the race.  I have no shame in admitting that I walked up the Crystal Bridges trail hill at mile 12.  It is a bugger of a hill and at the end of the race it is just rough!

It was fun to see so many people around the course and running the race.  Around mile 8 my friend Kyla was out spectating and ran a block with us.  I saw a former co-worker around mile 10 as he was spectating for someone on the course.  I got a kick out of 3 high school boys singing "Living on a Prayer" in a slightly off-key acappella style.  There were goofy signs all over the race course and then there were signs for the town's Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by Hersheys.  Unfortunately, there was no chocolate at the finish line:(

I definitely do Run for Chocolate!

Overall, my time was well within my range...not my best and not my worst.  The key accomplishment was that I finished my 15th half marathon.  I'm still a fan of the half marathon distance but maybe not a fan of the Bentonville course.  It always manages to kick my booty! I guess the medal was worth it...one of the coolest medals I've gotten so far!

Pauline, Mandy, and Me showing off our new hardware!

Memory Lane - My First Half Marathon

Today Rhonda and I headed out for an easy run as we finish up our training schedule for our half marathon next weekend. Bentonville was packed with runners and it was fun to see so many people out enjoying the weather. Rhonda picked a route that was two miles down the trail so that we could run up the same finish hill we will encounter next weekend. We hit our 2 mile turnaround point and headed back up the trail. As we were running along we saw a couple people out with a camera and poster. My first thought was that they got the date wrong for the race but we just ran by. As we got closer to the start of the BIG hill, I saw some cars parked alongside the trail. Sure enough, we got to the hill and there was Mike Rush of Rush Running. We chatted for a minute and he told us that one of his training group runners was going to be out of town for the race so he was doing his own personal half marathon a week early. Mike quickly pushed us on our way with some rousing cheering and we tackled the hill.

We finished up our run with a quick tour of downtown to add on some extra mileage so we were closer to 5 miles than 4 for the day. As we got back to our cars, Mike and his cheering squad had made their way to the square and the finish line. We asked about the runner and decided to do our cooldown walk in the direction that he would be coming. We found Shaun and his crew right as they finished the mile of hills and were at approx. 12.95 miles. Shaun was struggling with some leg cramping and his crew was encouraging him along. Rhonda and I both got sentimental as we watched Shaun make that last turn onto Main Street where he could see the finish line and crowd waiting for him. He perked up and found that last bit of strength to finish strong. I don't know Shaun at all but because Rush Running is like family I feel so proud for him and what he accomplished.

Watching his finish got me thinking about my first half marathon. It was the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach in 2001. I had seen an ad in Runner's World for a training/fundraising program called Courage for Cancer and decided to sign up. I remember being so scared and nervous about the distance and whether I could do it. I think I had some tendinitis issues during the last few weeks of training but since this was before blogging I don't have a detailed recap of that time.

My precursor to the blog...my fundraising page where I kept a very brief weekly recap of my training.

My first Half Marathon bib!

The race singlet that the charity provided was a little awkward in style so I tied the straps shorter. I also used iron on letters to add my name the night before in our hotel room. I even managed to iron on a letter to one of my sister's sheets that she had brought for us to use on the beach. Ooopsie!

First finish!!! It was a tough race with warm temps and a never ending last few miles on the boardwalk but I ran most of the race with two other members of the charity group and had fun chatting with them. Random side note...I would go on to wear those gray shorts out...literally! Several years later in 2006 I would run the OKC Memorial Half Marathon in those shorts and discover a huge rip in the crotch after finishing. I loved the fit of those shorts and still have no clue of how they fell apart during the OKC race.

Official time for my first half 2:54:34 and the bug was set for me to go on and do many more half marathons. Next week will be my 15th half marathon (16 if you include my Half Ironman in there.) I have a lot of respect for the distance and love the accomplishment I get each time I finish.

Please share your first big race experience in the comments below. I'm always looking for new races to try out!

Half Mary Tune Up

Most of the local running community is gearing up for the Bentonville Half Marathon on Saturday.  Mike Rush of Rush Running incorporates local races like this into his training plans for our weekly speed workouts.  This week we did a tune up workout that was geared towards making race pace feel easy. 

Each week Mike holds the workout top secret until after the group warmup.  Tonight though the white board with the workout was out on display as the group was huddling up for announcements.  The big news was that Mike has a new speaker system and microphone...let's hope he was just testing this out and won't have the microphone at all of our workouts! He's loud enough without the speaker system but the music playing during the workout was kind of fun. 

We should all know by now that Mike's workouts can be deceiving.  Tonight the white board displayed the following: 400 at half, 400 at 10k, 400 at 5k, 400 at faster than 5k. No rest between, 1:30 rest after times 2. 

He described the workout to us and the entire group was visibly excited for a 2 mile workout.  If only! Hang on for the surprise...written on the back of the board was the conclusion to the workout.  800 all out, 30 sec rest, 400 all out, 30 sec rest, 400 all out.  Whooooo, killer finish!

The initial two miles were actually kind of fun to do.  Mike asked us to hit the line and change gears for each pace change and then hold that pace for the full 400 versus fluctuating pace within each 400.  I struggle with that and normally have a much faster 2nd half of any repeat.  It was good to think about maintaining a steady pace during each 400.  My first two miles came in around 9:18 and 9:24.  I didn't take splits on each 400 and totally got called out for not doing so during our all out set. 

For our all out set, we descended the pace on the 800 since we were both a little nervous about the pace over that distance.  Mike wanted to know what our 800 time was and just laughed at both of us for not knowing. In our defense, we both were wearing our Garmins which aren't the best for stop watch capabilities. I think we hit around a 9:10 pace on the 1st half and 8:50 pace on the 2nd half but don't really know.  It felt fast and like we had picked up the pace!  Needless to say, we paid attention to our start/finish times on the last 2-400's and got 1:53 for both of those...that's definitely ALL OUT!!!  I definitely felt the workout even though it was short. 

Only a few more runs this week until the race.  I'm planning to take the race easy since my fitness over longer distance isn't quite where I had hoped it would be.  I always lose motivation in February and March and this year wasn't any different.  I see 5K's coming in the not so distant future so that should keep me motivated.  The race calendar just explodes once we get into April so I have no choice but to lose this winter weight and get race ready. 

If you are looking for a good workout, give this one a try.  It seems deceptively easy but you'll finish it up and have put in a hard effort.