You know how sometimes you do a race and you tell yourself that you would love to do it again next year? Well that was the Super Jock n Jill half for me. It has been on my sidebar as an upcoming race I want to do…But I never registered, until the morning of that is. What a deal! I got there and they had run out of shirts so they lowered the registration cost to $25! Cheapest race EVER! Plus my dresser is overflowing with shirts; I don’t need any more for a while.
I got registered at around 8:15 AM and the start time was 9 AM. So I wandered around a bit with The Hubs, my Little Buddy, and Lazy Dog. The Hubs tried to get me to warm up a bit but I opted out of that. I told him I would use my first mile as a warm up. Dumb choice. It was kind of chilly and wet and I just wanted to stand under the tree and stay dry.
The time came to head to the start, I got a quick pre race picture snapped and headed to my spot. I forgot that they did this last year too, but it is a gun start, meaning that there is no chip start, only chip finish. So everyone’s time begins when they fire the gun and if it takes you 30 seconds to start then that 30 seconds is in your total time. They had nice little pace signs where people were asked to line up according to their pace. I took my spot right in between the 8 and 9 minute signs. They were yelling out times as we crossed the start: it only took me 30 seconds.
We were off!! It was a bit crowed but not too bad. I enjoyed the start and seeing all the people running! About a mile and a quarter into the race I saw a familiar Jeep, with a familiar boy, husband and dog hanging out the window! YEAH!! My family! I love it!!! They cheered me on as I waved and yelled hi! We were mixed in with the people who were also running the 4.2 mile race so it was hard to tell who was running which race until they veered off to the right at about the two mile mark. Not many veered. I was hoping that everyone in front of me would make that turn leaving ME to be the leader! But that did not happen and I carried on.
This was about the time I decided to take a look at the trusty Coach Garmin. UGH. I forgot to change my laps to miles from quarters. So every quarter mile my watch would tell me just how fast I ran that .25 of a mile. So much for mile splits, I began pacing myself by the quarter mile. This actually ended up being kind of fun and will be useful for training.
Slowest quarter: #34 (8.5 miles) 2 min 49 seconds.
Fasted quarter: #2 (.25 miles) 2 min 2 seconds
So I tried to keep my quarters between 2:15 and 2:45 to make for 9:45 min/mile at the slowest.
When I hit mile 4 I kind of grumbled to myself. IF I had only done the 4.2 miles I would be almost done by now. But I carried on. This course is kind of funny because the middle of it is a serous pretzel. Miles 6-10 are all twisted in together. It is quite a site! People are coming and going on both sides of you! You just follow the signs and the people! Around mile 5.75 I am sad to say I saw the winning male blow by. And I kid you not he was flying! He won with a 5 min pace at 1:05.52. It was amazing! And the winning female ran a 6 min pace at 1:17.27.
Around mile 8 my iPod died. I can’t say I am surprised, I did wash it in the washing machine after all. It died and I didn’t have the energy to mess with it. I just ran and had to listen to all the chatting around me. So and so’s diet, and such and such said blah blah blah and can you believe ABC did XYZ to you know who!? Who cares!!! Shut up and run! I like to talk when I run too, but I didn’t have AN the RB with me this time. Then there was the lady with ANGRY GARMIN GRIMLINS! Her watch would not stop beeping and yelling at her. I sped up to get away from her, she sped up because her watch was yelling at her…I slowed down to get away from the horrible clatter. I don’t know how she could stand it! I would have thrown myself in the river! She went on and got far enough ahead and I sped back up a bit. But around mile 10 I started to get passed. A lot. I guess I was tired. But people were passing me, people in my age group (which was huge by the way! 30-39! That is a big age group!). It was annoying and I decided I needed to work on my endurance. However you do that.
At about 12.75 miles I saw my boys again. I waved wildly and was feeling pretty good! The finish was oh so close! My dog chased me down and tried to finish the race with me but he was caught by the hubs. Probably not a good idea to finish a race with my 110 pound German shepherd, off leash. Some people frown on that.
I was able to finish strong, despite red shirt girl trying to run me into a pole. I slowed to miss the pole then passed her. They even called my name as I crossed the line. The poor guy who was cutting timing chips asked he could cut mine off, I said “Sure, right here” and made the gesture of a knife cutting my throat. The kid didn’t get it but the crowd did. They laughed and so did I. He cut the chip off my shoe and looked at me like I was crazy. Eh, maybe so. But I think I was thirsty and oxygen deprived.
During this race I saw the oldest man ever running. I wanted to just slow down and jog with him and find out his story. He was wearing one red sock and one blue sock and American flag shorts and matching shirt. It was awesome. I saw a mom pushing her nearly grown son with cerebral palsy in a running stroller. I will never ever complain about pushing my 36 pound 4 year old again. It brought tears to my eyes to see the joy in this boy’s face as he got to do the race. It made me think of the story I read about the father who did an entire Iron Man with his son. Check out the story here! You won’t be sorry! Isn’t it amazing what people will do? I find that during these races I really get to evaluate my life and where I am and what I take for granted and what I want to do. I want to do something great. I want to inspire people like this mother inspires me, like the old man running and loving every minute of it, like the old man wearing his Pikes Peak Summit run shirt, like the 8 year old who ran the entire half, like the veteran who is an amputee and ran the half with his cool leg thing, like all the people out there who are working against all odds to prove that it can be done.
In all this was a good run, not my best and not my worst. The official results have me at 2:05.10 but my Garmin had me at 2.04:13. Either way, I am happy with it. I am pretty sore today. More sore after this half than I have been in a long time. So today was a rest day and I am starting back up tomorrow. I have a half marathon to train for!!! :) And will Iever get a sub 2? We will see!
Now here is the Garmin link to the race!
Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Super Jock n Jill Half Marathon
Shared via AddThis
Today I am grateful:
for a wonderful weekend with the fam
for the sunshine
for my Garmin
I got registered at around 8:15 AM and the start time was 9 AM. So I wandered around a bit with The Hubs, my Little Buddy, and Lazy Dog. The Hubs tried to get me to warm up a bit but I opted out of that. I told him I would use my first mile as a warm up. Dumb choice. It was kind of chilly and wet and I just wanted to stand under the tree and stay dry.
The time came to head to the start, I got a quick pre race picture snapped and headed to my spot. I forgot that they did this last year too, but it is a gun start, meaning that there is no chip start, only chip finish. So everyone’s time begins when they fire the gun and if it takes you 30 seconds to start then that 30 seconds is in your total time. They had nice little pace signs where people were asked to line up according to their pace. I took my spot right in between the 8 and 9 minute signs. They were yelling out times as we crossed the start: it only took me 30 seconds.
We were off!! It was a bit crowed but not too bad. I enjoyed the start and seeing all the people running! About a mile and a quarter into the race I saw a familiar Jeep, with a familiar boy, husband and dog hanging out the window! YEAH!! My family! I love it!!! They cheered me on as I waved and yelled hi! We were mixed in with the people who were also running the 4.2 mile race so it was hard to tell who was running which race until they veered off to the right at about the two mile mark. Not many veered. I was hoping that everyone in front of me would make that turn leaving ME to be the leader! But that did not happen and I carried on.
This was about the time I decided to take a look at the trusty Coach Garmin. UGH. I forgot to change my laps to miles from quarters. So every quarter mile my watch would tell me just how fast I ran that .25 of a mile. So much for mile splits, I began pacing myself by the quarter mile. This actually ended up being kind of fun and will be useful for training.
Slowest quarter: #34 (8.5 miles) 2 min 49 seconds.
Fasted quarter: #2 (.25 miles) 2 min 2 seconds
So I tried to keep my quarters between 2:15 and 2:45 to make for 9:45 min/mile at the slowest.
When I hit mile 4 I kind of grumbled to myself. IF I had only done the 4.2 miles I would be almost done by now. But I carried on. This course is kind of funny because the middle of it is a serous pretzel. Miles 6-10 are all twisted in together. It is quite a site! People are coming and going on both sides of you! You just follow the signs and the people! Around mile 5.75 I am sad to say I saw the winning male blow by. And I kid you not he was flying! He won with a 5 min pace at 1:05.52. It was amazing! And the winning female ran a 6 min pace at 1:17.27.
Around mile 8 my iPod died. I can’t say I am surprised, I did wash it in the washing machine after all. It died and I didn’t have the energy to mess with it. I just ran and had to listen to all the chatting around me. So and so’s diet, and such and such said blah blah blah and can you believe ABC did XYZ to you know who!? Who cares!!! Shut up and run! I like to talk when I run too, but I didn’t have AN the RB with me this time. Then there was the lady with ANGRY GARMIN GRIMLINS! Her watch would not stop beeping and yelling at her. I sped up to get away from her, she sped up because her watch was yelling at her…I slowed down to get away from the horrible clatter. I don’t know how she could stand it! I would have thrown myself in the river! She went on and got far enough ahead and I sped back up a bit. But around mile 10 I started to get passed. A lot. I guess I was tired. But people were passing me, people in my age group (which was huge by the way! 30-39! That is a big age group!). It was annoying and I decided I needed to work on my endurance. However you do that.
At about 12.75 miles I saw my boys again. I waved wildly and was feeling pretty good! The finish was oh so close! My dog chased me down and tried to finish the race with me but he was caught by the hubs. Probably not a good idea to finish a race with my 110 pound German shepherd, off leash. Some people frown on that.
I was able to finish strong, despite red shirt girl trying to run me into a pole. I slowed to miss the pole then passed her. They even called my name as I crossed the line. The poor guy who was cutting timing chips asked he could cut mine off, I said “Sure, right here” and made the gesture of a knife cutting my throat. The kid didn’t get it but the crowd did. They laughed and so did I. He cut the chip off my shoe and looked at me like I was crazy. Eh, maybe so. But I think I was thirsty and oxygen deprived.
During this race I saw the oldest man ever running. I wanted to just slow down and jog with him and find out his story. He was wearing one red sock and one blue sock and American flag shorts and matching shirt. It was awesome. I saw a mom pushing her nearly grown son with cerebral palsy in a running stroller. I will never ever complain about pushing my 36 pound 4 year old again. It brought tears to my eyes to see the joy in this boy’s face as he got to do the race. It made me think of the story I read about the father who did an entire Iron Man with his son. Check out the story here! You won’t be sorry! Isn’t it amazing what people will do? I find that during these races I really get to evaluate my life and where I am and what I take for granted and what I want to do. I want to do something great. I want to inspire people like this mother inspires me, like the old man running and loving every minute of it, like the old man wearing his Pikes Peak Summit run shirt, like the 8 year old who ran the entire half, like the veteran who is an amputee and ran the half with his cool leg thing, like all the people out there who are working against all odds to prove that it can be done.
In all this was a good run, not my best and not my worst. The official results have me at 2:05.10 but my Garmin had me at 2.04:13. Either way, I am happy with it. I am pretty sore today. More sore after this half than I have been in a long time. So today was a rest day and I am starting back up tomorrow. I have a half marathon to train for!!! :) And will Iever get a sub 2? We will see!
Now here is the Garmin link to the race!
Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Super Jock n Jill Half Marathon
Shared via AddThis
Today I am grateful:
for a wonderful weekend with the fam
for the sunshine
for my Garmin
GReat warmup for the Seattle 1/2...love the race report.. Bummer about Garmin and the ipod. I would have been annoyed being so close to people. Maybe I will do this race next year, not sure how I feel about the pretzel though?? I would probably knock people out..
ReplyDeleteYou are a better person than me. I would have pummeled Garmin chick for being such a funktard. That's not true, I would however have made many snide remarks that she would overhear.
ReplyDeleteGreat race report!
You will get a sub 2hr!! Great post! I wonder about folks who are gabbing when racing? That's energy wasted. Keep running!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great race report, it was a pleasure to read it.
ReplyDeleteI've heard about the dad and his son in the Iron Man race last year and I saw it on youtube and it brought tears to my eyes!
Great race report! That is a crazy big age group!! Good luck training for your next one!
ReplyDelete