The week before the race, debated whether to run the 5K, bike tour or the half marathon. The half marathon was a wake up call. Sylvie (I knew you would run the half)
We woke to the alarming sounds of John Mayall, had a banana and ocean spray energy drink. B and S have got ready for likely a 200 races over the years and we have never forgot a timing chip. This morning, Sylvie forgot her chip, we were already at 4th south, turned around and went back to Murray. By the time we arrived, hard time finding parking, on the last trak to the start. The race started as we throwing our clothing bags. Sylvie had to make a pit stop and we hurried to join the crowd of runners. We crossed the start 3 or 4 minutes late, all in fun.
The walk up call - regarding cross-training, cross train all you want, darn difficult to run a half marathon without running. This was my 5th run of the year, 3 have been races.
The start was crazy crowded - no chance of seeing Devine or Kelli, they were long gone. Ran with Sylvie about 1/4 mile and she was off to the races, weaving / ducking, getting around runners. The race did not really thin out, I was always with runners. This surprised me with the slow pace. I ran the first 11 miles without stopping, this inlcuded running on the grass when available and on the word chips in liberty park. The cement "pavement" was really a killer on the knee. I am likely the only runner who was slower on the down hill than the uphill.
Shorts: enjoyed being part of the race; missed being in great shape and pusing the pace and; really enjoyed feeling the sense of accomplishment. Will this be my last race? who knows, said the same thing at St.George last year.
Laughing, how many times have you laughed in a race. A woman and her daugher were running my pace, they would run, walk and run again, I would pass them when they were walking. After several miles of this hip hop, were we headed up the last hill before the left run, the young girl was a character, kept asking her mother during the race if she looked like hell, her mother would say no. I decided to pass as many runners as possible in the last block (hill) before the left turn, as I was just behind the mother/daughter, she said do I look like hell, he mother answered no, I said yes a split second after her mother, it got quite a laugh out of several runners. The girl laughed also.
The supporters were great, I got a couple of shout outs for the old guy, kind of funny, I don't think I'm old. No tales of PRs or mad dashes to the finish, did have a kick left and passed a few runners.
Sylvie ran 1:57, she was not happy with the time and felt she could have been a few minutes faster if we had not got stuck behind the crowd.
Stay Kool, B of BS Rools out
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