Race Recap - Salisbury Hidden Treasures Half Marathon

I got to Salisbury on Saturday in time to help volunteer handing out race packets.  I really enjoy helping with registration.  I get to talk with the runners and find out interesting stories.  My favorite was a lady who came from North Carolina who was running a half marathon in all 50 states.  We were her 12th state.  I also enjoy it because it gives me time to work with other people who enjoy running.  I talked with Charlie about triathlons and he gave me some really good tips.  I also got to spend the entire day with Running Buddy Colleen!  It was so good to see her and we chatted the entire time.

Colleen and I agreed to run the race together and view it as a training run.  So her plan was to run the first mile or so at a 10:30 pace, then the next few miles at a 10:00 pace, then the rest of the race at 9:30.  We've both read articles about the importance of running the second half of the race faster than the first half.  While 10:30 and 10:00 are much slower than what I would normally run in a race, I felt like it made a lot of sense for me to do this "training" race at that pace to see how it worked. 

So at the starting line, I jogged along happily next to Colleen.  It took a lot of discipline for us to stay at a 10:00 pace, so we stayed there.  Several times we had to pull back the pace when we looked at our watches and saw a 9:15 pace!

The race had been billed as a flat and fast course.  It turned out to be neither flat nor fast.  But at mile 6, I was still feeling pretty good.  Mile 7 has always been my nemesis.  I don't know why but I alwasy struggle at mile 7.  So when I started to feel a bit like I had weights tied to my feet, I worried that it was my normal mile 7 issues.  Shortly after that we passed the Salisbury University's stadium.  One of their teams was having a practice and I could hear music pumping through the speakers.  As soon as I got in range where I could hear it, the song switched to Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run".  Now there is a very long story behind why that song is so special to me...and I don't want this blog to go off track, so I'll save that story for another day.  But let's just say that the song gave me some new life and some new motivation.

It was about a mile and a half later when Colleen was really struggling.  I wanted to stay with her but she could tell that I was still feeling good and she didn't want to hold me back.  So I did go ahead for a little bit.  But it wasn't long before I completely fell apart.  My foot hurt so badly that I couldn't ignore it, my knees were bothering me and I was getting a nasty blister.  I stopped to walk for a bit and wait for Colleen.  She wasn't far behind me and caught up quickly.  We walked together for a few seconds, then started a jog.

Now there was an older lady who was running around the same place as Colleen and I.  I noticed that on her shirt she had written several states' abbreviations.  Another 50 state runner!  The fact that she was probably 60 years old made that even more impressive to me.  I made a mental note to find her after the race and chat with her.

The last 2 miles were really just a mental struggle to gut out the rest of the run.  I was on unfamiliar roads and couldn't see the civic center where the finish line was, so I had no idea where I was.  The finish was inside the civic center.  Adding insult to injury, there was a hill we had to run up to get to the civic center.  Ugh.  The good news is that once I got into the civic center, it sounded like hundreds of people cheering for me at the finish.

My time was 2:15:23 on my watch and 2:15:39 for the chip time.  It's not the fastest time I've ever run, but also not the slowest.  My fastest is a 2:05 and my slowest is a 2:23. 

So I learned that starting slow is a good idea but doesn't mean I won't fall apart at some point in the race.  I am a bit worried about my knees.  It's a day later and I'm still in some pain in my knees.  I took today off from all activity in the hopes that I can be OK for track practice on Wed.

So back to the race recap...immediately after the finish, my calves cramped.  I tried to stretch and it only got worse.  I walked around quite a bit and slowly my calves stopped hurting so badly.  I've never experienced that before.  I wonder what that was about.  I'll have to google.

After the race, Colleen and I met up with her Ocean City Running Club buddies, Lauren and Pam.  Both of those women ended up winning their age groups!  I'll write another blog entry about Lauren and our competition to be the nicest runner.  She was great.

Overall, it was a really good experience to run the half in Salisbury.  I definitely learned some things and I realized that I'm a lot farther from my goal pace than I had hoped.  Still some work to do in the next month...