Fox Cities Half Marathon Race Report

After months of training, I ran my first half marathon (13.1 miles) on Sunday, part of the Fox Cities Festival of Races. I've read that you should have three goals for a race, one that you'd be satisfied with achieving, one that you'd be thrilled with, and a "dream" goal. Mine were to finish without walking -- not even through water stops, to come in under 2:40 and to finish under 2:30.

I didn't get off to a very good start. Due to a combination of my perpetual lateness and the "continuous" shuttles from the parking area at the finish to the starting line not being so continuous, I ended up with just enough time to check my bag and hop in the portapotty line. I was still waiting when they announced that it was three minutes to the start, but fortunately the past 4 1/2 years of motherhood have made me a quick pee-er. ;) I wanted to be near the back of the pack anyway, since I am slow and find it demoralizing to be passed by thousands of runners in the first mile, so it actually turned out fine. I didn't have time to wait around and get nervous -- or cold, since it was still pretty chilly out and I had taken off my jacket at gear check.

When the gun went off, I walked for a minute or two before actually getting to the start (hooray for chip timing!) and then tried to stick with my usual pace and not be influenced by the crowd to go out too fast. At the one mile marker I heard a guy near me say to his friend, "Oh good, only twelve more miles to go!" The friend said, "Twelve point ONE," which gave me a good giggle. I talked to them a little bit and found out they were aiming for a 12 minute/mile pace, too, so decided to run with them for a while. I was hoping they weren't going to be really chatty, since I don't like to talk a lot while running -- must run in the family -- but don't mind a sarcastic comment here or there as a bit of distraction. Plus I knew I probably wasn't going to be able to pull away from them if I was annoyed. HA! Fortunately, it was just the right amount of chatter. We ended up pretty steadily running 11:30 minute/miles, which I was hoping I'd be able to keep up past the halfway point. My long runs had been nearer 12:15-12:30, so I wasn't sure how it'd go.

Shortly after the three mile marker, we got passed by our first race walker, who was flying! I knew the faster walkers would pass me sometime, but I wasn't expecting it so soon, especially since their start was five minutes after ours! I think she was the eventual winner, since Ray said a woman was the first walker through, and the next several who passed me were all men.

One of the guys I was running with was going to his first ever Packer game and didn't think he'd finish in time, so he had prearranged to meet his ride at a gas station about 7.5 miles in, which I thought was pretty funny. The other guy said he hadn't trained well all summer, since he had a new puppy (to which I said, "Hey, I have two kids!"), so he started taking walking breaks at that point.

I was still feeling strong and able to keep up the pace we'd been running. At the ten mile marker, I looked at my watch and realized I had a pretty good shot at coming in around 2:30. I felt well hydrated and had eaten two energy gels by then, so I decided to skip the remaining aid stations and try to push it a bit the last 5K. With about two miles to go, I started hearing the crowd at the finish. The course did a u-turn at the very end, so I wasn't actually able to see the finish line until there was only about .3 to go. I picked it up a little more, saw Ray and the kids a hundred yards or so from the finish, and crossed the line with 2:30:02 on my watch. My official chip time was 2:29:59, so I just squeaked under my dream goal!

Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and I am looking forward to many more races in my future.