boogying to a PR

i can tell myself i wasn't expecting to run that well, since i don't run on pavement much and i haven't been training for/focusing on the half marathon distance. but of course i wanted to kick ass. it's one of those inherent qualities of a competitive person... even though i'm not fast enough to be competitive with other people, i do so with myself. my previous top time was at that atlanta half in '05... 1:49.40. my friend jim paced me and i couldn't have done it without him (and the personal frustrations i poured into the race). but oh, did i hurt bad that night.

while i wasn't excited to pound 13 miles of asphalt, i was looking forward to the weekend and helping my sister reach her goal of running another big race (we did the disney full marathon in '03). liz came up on thursday and we drove to nashville on friday. we stayed with my teammate mark and his fiance beth, who was running her first half. the last weather report we got before going to bed had us expecting lows in the mid 50s and showers likely in the morning. we got up around 5am CST and headed to the start at 6:15. they live right by vandy, so we had about 1.5miles to the start - a perfect warmup. this race is huge - over 32k people, so runners were divided into something like 32 corrals based on estimated finish times. i made my way up to corral #5 - for my estimated 1:48 finish time. i tried to hit the port-o-john one last time, but after standing in line 8 minutes and barely moving, i gave up and just hoped i would start sweating quick :)

liz, me and beth before the start

once i hopped into my group, i saw the official pace guy for those hoping for a 1:45 finish. hmm, that sounds nice. i figured i'd latch on for as long as possible, then hope that any difference would keep me close enough to my goal. luckily the morning warmed up quickly and i was able to shed my longsleeve shirt before the start. the first few miles went well, each right under an 8min pace. it was tough staying near the pace dude with all the people around. it's really amazing how many people we passed, and even more amazing how many of these people were barely moving along. (did they really expect to finish in less than 1:45??!) the course was great - a few rolling ups and downs, but nothing too bad. live bands every mile or so kept the spirits up (thankfully it wasn't all country music!) around mile 7, i felt an odd twinge in both of my calves. over the next few miles i had some hammer gel & ecaps and slowed my pace a tad, hoping to avoid a full on charlie horse. i kept checking my watch, hoping my overall time was still looking good. it was. unfortunately the twinges never went away and were kept at the forefront of my mind. quite annoying and unsettling. finally, we got to the bridge that would bring us to the finish line. i stepped it up the last mile, hoping the adrenaline would prevent any last minute cramps. it did, and i finished with a personal best of 1:48.36. i am quite happy with the time, although know that i could have really smashed my record if my calves had been beeling better.

after being herded through the finish line corrals (which was madness, but there was lots of good swag & food), i hung out looking for beth & liz. both had great races and finished just ahead of their goals as well. after showering & eating too much food at Noshville (great deli!), we hit the road and headed back to chatt.

post race!