Sunday was the 2009 running of the Platte River Half-Marathon. This was my first half-marathon last year, and I planned for it to be my first "real" race of the season after my knee surgery. The forecast for the race was looking pretty bleak the whole week leading up to it, with mentions of another blizzard on Saturday. I was having visions of running 13.1 miles on snowshoes! Luckily that wasn't necessary, as the forecast storm never really hit other than some flurries and a whole lot of wind on Saturday.
I woke up Sunday morning to a nice crust of snow on top of ice that
freaked me the heck out as far as the race. Oh, and did I mention it
was cold?
Brrr... I drove down to to the race start, parked, and proceeded to sit
in my car for a good 45 minutes. I did emerge a couple of times, to
take a quick jog and test my layers and to hit the port-a-potty.
Luckily, the snow was mostly melted off so I decided to risk it without
the yak trax, which was a good decision. I met up with a friend from my online running group, Lisa, and her friend Kari about 10 minutes before the start and we got
to chat for a few minutes before lining up with our pace group. It was
SO awesome having people to run with! I ran this race with my friend
Amy last year, but I only made it 2 miles before my digestive problems hit
and I lost her. The first 6 or so miles absolutely FLEW by. It was
actually feeling pretty warm, and it was great being able to chat a
bit. My friend (and number one cheerleader) Becky was cheering for me at several points along the course, so I was able to toss my fleece and gloves to her as I ran by. Lisa and I lost Kari somewhere around 6 miles, I think, but the two of us ran
pretty comfortably together until 10. My legs started fading fast after
10, and I started feeling like I was holding Lisa back, so finally
around 11 I dug up enough breath to gasp out to her to go on and off
she went! My friend Hillary's husband, Ben, was running the race as well and we had
run with him for a bit at the very beginning before losing him and I
caught sight of him right around 12 miles. He was only about 20 yards
ahead of me and I could see he was fading a little bit, but I was, too, and just
couldn't catch him. I had to walk up the one big hill on the course, an
overpass over the interstate at mile 12.25ish, but was able to pick it
up a little bit at the top and for the rest of the way in.
My official time was 2:14:24 for a 10:16 pace, which I'm happy with.
The race isn't chip-timed, and my Garmin said 2:14:02 and I forgot to
stop the timer until I was well out of the finish chute, so I'm
guessing it was actually a little closer to 2:13. Regardless, that's 6 minutes
faster than last year (or about the same after you take out my potty
stops), which is good.It means I'm about back to where I was this time
last year. AND I figured out my race nutrition so I didn't have to take
any unscheduled stops, woohoo! Apparently, all I need is 3-4 sport beans around miles 8, 10, and 12!
And once again, a HUGE shout-out to Becky, who not only appeared at least 5 times along the course, but even managed to jog along with me a bit at the finish (at 30+ weeks pregnant!) and was there to make sure I didn't fall on my face afterwards. Love ya, Beck!
Me and Lisa after the race (in what Becky calls my chemo patient hat...hey, it was cold!)
