Day 365 -- Half Marathon

I woke up at 4:30 am. Getting up early was not a problem. I actually started my 20 mile runs by getting up at 4:00, so that I could be done in time for church. What was different was that I didn't just toddle out the door and run.

First, I had to wait for my buddy Bruce to pick me up, at 5:30. Then we drove for more than an hour to Madison. Then we waited around in line for a shuttle bus from the finish to the start. Then we took the shuttle from the bus to the start. Then we stood around in a crowd of thousands, waiting for the start, which was at 7:30.

It was a big race. There were 2151 finishers in the half marathon alone. There were another 667 in the marathon, and another thousand or so in the 10K, the 6K, and the relays. The starts were staggered, so it was only the 2000 of us starting at 7:30, but it was still a crowd. And it continued to be crowded the entire race. Well past the halfway point, I was still having to dodge around people, and at the end, I was still passing people and being passed. (Mostly being passed.)

Once we got running, I felt OK. I started at a fairly slow pace. I was running with Bruce, who had declared himself to be out of shape, and said he just wanted to finish. I ran with him for a couple of miles, then lost him at a port-a-potty stop. From then on, I was on my own, or as much on my own as I could be in a crowd of 2000 runners.

The weather was gorgeous. I'd heard lots of horror stories about last year, when it started in the 70's and rose quickly to the 90's. But today it was in the 60's and low humidity. We couldn't have asked for a better day.

I went to grad school in Madison, so I covered a lot of familiar territory. However, I wasn't a runner back then, so I had never run any of it. Believe me, it's a different world in your car, or even on your bike. It was a nice, scenic route, with not too many hills. There was a lot of support along the way, with water and Gatorade.

I did manage to pick up the pace after the first couple of miles. I was totally spent by the end. My mind was saying, "Let's kick it into the finish," but my legs were saying, "This is plenty fast enough, thank you." As I said, more people passed me at the end than I passed. Nonetheless, I finished in under two hours (1:54:35), which is what I wanted. Officially, I didn't set a time goal, but I did have that two hours in my head.

At the finish, I was too tired to think straight. I just wandered through the finish stuff -- they hand you a medal and some water (at that point, I wanted the water more, but now, I'm happy for the medal, too), then take your timing chip, then point you to more food and drink. I drank a couple of bottles of water and some Gatorade pretty fast, and ate some bagels and other stuff.

Eventually, I met up with Bruce, and we made our way home. It was a good day. I'm glad that I went. I don't know right now about running twice as far in one day, but fortunately, I have time to work my way up to that.