Indian Summer Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

The splits below tell the story. First two miles felt good - comfortable cruising speed, still pretty cool and trying to get my body warmed up. Around mile 2, I realized my body's inability to empty out completely was indeed coming back to haunt me. Oh sh1t, for real. For the next 7 miles, I kept hoping to see a portajohn but never did (we were out in farm country). Never even saw an adequate bush or tree either, for that matter. At one point (just after mile 8, I think) I really thought I was gonna lose it. Stopped to walk for a minute to try to get things under control. Somehow, that helped and I was able to start running again. Around this same time, a black SUV flew down the road and honked at some of the runners behind us (presumably, not in a friendly manner - apparently, the cones and relatively large number of runners on the road with race numbers didn't clue them into the fact that there was a race going on). A county sheriff's SUV was on one of the side roads, and the runners behind us yelled to the sheriff to go get the black SUV. So, they did! The sheriff pulled out and followed the black SUV until it was just beyond a the race course turn-off into the park, and pulled the SUV over. Score! This was a good distraction from the matter at hand.

I was hoping I'd see a portajohn once we got back into the Rez park, and sure enough, just after mile 9 I saw one on the horizon. WOW I don't think I've EVER been so happy to see one of those things in my life. As much as I hated to stop mid-race, it was absolutely necessary. Afterwards, waited while Travis stopped too, and then we took off, both now able to crank up the pace quite a bit. Ran strong - and comfortably, for the first time since mile 2 - to the finish.

Splits:

1- 9:43
2- 9:52
3- 10:19
4- 10:07
5- 10:25
6- 10:26
7- 10:09
8- 9:52
9- 10:15
10- 9:57
11- 9:28
12- 9:20
13- 9:23

1 - 1:14 (7:59/mi pace)

(From Garmin - clock and chip time will be longer since they include the stop)

We saw a portajohn in a trailhead parking lot just before mile 2. Had I known things would get bad and I wouldn't see another one for 7+ miles, I would've stopped. But there was no way to know that then, so oh well. This is the first time this has happened to me in a race and all considered, I think I did as well as I could have.

Other than that, it was a good training run. Hydration was spot-on - I drank a little water and a little HEED at each aid station (every 2 miles). Ate 4 Luna Moons after mile 8. Legs didn't start hurting til the last couple miles, which made sense anyway since that was also when I cranked up the pace. Had I been training just for this race, I would've been disappointed in my time (not my worst, but not my best either - 7 minutes slower than my PR and not the sub-2 I'm hoping to hit sometime). But considering I'm in the middle of marathon training and ran without a taper (AND the circumstances), I'm pleased with this. The average pace is still consistent with most of my long runs to date and just a bit faster than what I hope will be my marathon pace.

Walked around a little...then high-tailed it back to the car once the cool air began to chill us too much. Threw on warm clothes and headed to brunch.


I think we got the point already.


For an inaugural race advertised as relatively low-frills, this was great. Relatively inexpensive entry fee but still some great swag and good support in terms of course control and aid stations (with the possible exception of porta-johns - not something I've ever had to worry about before, but today the lack of them was nearly disastrous!). Beautiful course, mostly on dirt which was a nice change from most asphalt-heavy half marathons. No crowd support unless you count horses, cows, and llamas, but the scenery made up for that.