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Comments: We played a bit of "dodge the runners" for the first few miles and settled into our pace nicely by the time we passed the pep band at Shaw between miles two and three. As we passed Chavis Park, there was a Celtic dance group that brought a lot of energy. The group had a lot of kids and they were an awesome cheer section. That was handy because we were entering a hilly section of the course. About this time, one of the pacers reminded us that runners who have problems on hills are not properly engaging their glutes. She said that as you are running up the hill, pretend that someone is grabbing your butt. That will get you to engage your glutes. At this point she mentioned that she's a certified running coach. Interesting. Good on course entertainment/distraction as well! We continued and passed some sparkly skirted baton twirling grannies in Oakwood and shortly after that, took the long hill on Glascock toward Peace College. And then we were on Peace Street, there were a few notable hills but not too bad. We passed a Japanese drumming group here. They were really good. We started to speed up here. We were getting to a long gradual uphill and that brought our pace back down. I was still with the group. We were about to pass Cameron Village - mile 7.5 -- where my parents and brother would be. I saw them before they saw me. I waved and they spotted me. Still going up hill. Still with the group. The hill finally ended and we turned on Pogue to to around Raleigh Little Theater and head towards NC State. Making good progress and still feeling good. We started to see signs for the marathon/half marathon split and just as we were sorting ourselves out we came upon a pep band with cheer squad near the NCSU library. They were awesome. I'm not normally a fan of cheer teams but this was a really nice setup with sparkly pom-poms -- a great pick me up for that point in the race. (The marathon and half marathon courses split on Hillsborough Street.) We continued on Hillsborough, past the NC State belltower on Pullen and then through the Dix property, our final hill challenge of the day. Up and around Dix and past the Blue Mile. Very inspiring. Then the final hill in Boylan Heights and a few more turns to the finish  Post race
Warm down: I sat outside the finishing chute and drank some water and had a banana. Then I headed back to the car to change into dry cloths and we went to the post race concert. Jimmy Johns was handing out small sandwiches and I had two of those. Then we went out for a late brunch. Profile Album Last updated: 2014-05-09 12:00 AM
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United States
Competitor Group, Inc.
54F / 12C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 593/5599
Age Group = F45-49
Age Group Rank = 10/327
Goals:
1. Have fun! Cross the finish line with my arms raised and a smile on my face!
2. PR the course. Better than 1:56:38
3. PR the distance. Better than 1:52:50
4. Finish with the 1:50 pace group
I went to the expo on Friday and picked up my packet. The expo was nice and it was only with great determination that I did not spend a lot of money there!
Up at 4:00. On race morning I had my usual breakfast -- a bagel with peanut butter, a banana, a water bottle of water + camelbak elixir. (I brought an extra water bottle in the car with me to sip on as needed.) After breakfast, I went through my stretching routine and then got dressed and double checked that I had everything. All set!
Kevin and I were out the door at 4:35. It was 53 when we left the house (sunny and in the 60s later). We were parked by about 5:00 which I guess is better than the mad dash and traffic jam last year. At any rate they wanted everyone parked by 5:30 so they could start closing streets.
Last year, we were in the car and pulling out of the driveway just before 5:30 and we were supposed to be parked by 6:00. This year, race organizers wanted us to be parked by 5:30 so we left at...
So there we were, in the parking garage two hours before the race. We ended up hanging out in the car for about 45 minutes and then finding a bathroom for me. Then we saw a bunch of runners loitering in the Sheraton so we went in and joined them.
At about 6:15 I went for a one mile warm up run and told Kevin that I'd meet him at the Brooks Potty Like a Rock Star setup. I did some dynamic stuff and met him there and then it was time to head towards the corrals.
On the way there I saw the Grab My Wheel crew with their bikes. They were a corral before the runners and they would be leading us out. My friend Gordon rides with them (you may remember that he's the one who helped me so much at BikeMS, staying with me until the ambulance came and calling Kevin for me). I stopped and talked to him for a minute.
I was in corral 3. When I saw the 1:50 pacers with their sign, I took off the long sleeved tee that I had been wearing, gave it to Kevin and entered the corral. Prdtty soon they were announcing the national anthem (everyone turned on their GPS watches at this point), sang it, made a few announcements and the runners pushing wheelchairs took off and pretty quickly after that, my wave was starting.