Carmel Marathon (Half) - RunHalf Marathon

First, let me start out by saying that Glenda the Good Witch sung the National Anthem. No. Really. Anyone and everyone there had to do everything within their power not to bust out laughing as the song was belted out. As soon as it started, everyone kinda looked at each other like, "really?", and I looked at Mary and said, "it's Glenda, the Good Witch from the South". I swear...the high pitched voice that kinda wavered when she spoke/sung. I could just imagine her in her Witch outfit, little wand, gesturing as she sung.
Anyhow, back to the race. I gave Mary a quick hug and kiss as she seeded herself, and made my way to the front line. I didn't imagine I would be RIGHT on the front line, but that's where my "split" poster was being held, so that's where I went. I waited about 3 minutes as the dignitaries of the city said yadda, yadda, yadda, and then the gun went off, and off went. Mary was wearing the Garmin, so for this race, I was left to figure it out with my regular ole sports watch, which I haven't done in years. This felt VERY strange to not be able to look down and see my average pace at any time, or have the watch automatically spit out my splits every mile. But I survived. What was funny was that as we were walking to the start, Mary asked me what my pace was going to be for my predicted finish time....and I FORGOT to look it up earlier, so I just kinda told myself that a 6:50ish was about what I was looking for to get under 1:30. Actually, I should have gone just about 8 seconds faster per mile to PR, but whatever.....
So, off we went. I took to what felt like the "right" pace, and at mile 1, I was fast by about 10 seconds. Fine. Not TOO fast, and a little time in the bank is always welcomed. The next few miles were uneventful. Just hitting my split button to confirm I was holding my pace. The course was nice, and I was near the front, so I had very few people around me. Just 2 or 3 of us trading places as we went up and down the hills. I discovered that I am becoming a better hill runner than most. I gain on the uphills, but loose on the downhills. Weird.
On nearly EVER Phucking race this happens to me. 5K. 10K. Marathon. Whatever. Around the half way point of the race, my brain decides that, "Hey fool, this kinda hurts. Why are you doing this to yourself? Who would REALLY care if you just stopped? This is stupid". I used to call this my "DEVIL" point. The Devil is trying to convince me to slow down, or just plain quit. So now I have to come up with good reasons to hold this painful pace for the next so many minutes, or even HOURS! Sometimes I can come up with a reason really fast and get rid of the Devil. Sometimes, it takes a while. And sometimes.....SOMETIMES, the bastard comes back for a second visit after I've already convinced him of my worthy cause. So it happened again. Around mile 6, even though nothing really hurt, the little red idiot jumped into my skull and made me second guess my reason for being there. Trying to qualify for something? Well...no. Trying to PR? Hmmmmm.....not really. OHHHHH, so you just wanna come out here and punish yourself for no good reason? NO! I have lots of good reasons! Dick! I'm testing myself for other BIG upcoming races. Not just physically, but against YOU...the phucker in my head! So bring it onnnnnnnnnn! And with that...he was gone and off I went.
My splits were ok until mile 7, when I decided to just "relax" for a mile since I was was ahead of pace...but I "relaxed" just a tad to much and hit a 7:18 minute mile. OPPS! I kicked the gear up and got back to my 6:39 by next mile. YIKES! The next couple of miles were fine, and then I tried to kick a new gear the last 2 miles to bring it home. I had been trading places with the same 3 people for several miles, but I finally passed a few more the last bit here. A young guy passed me at around 11ish, and I decided not to run "his" race, and just stick with mine. Wisdom....good to have. I passed 2 girls the last couple of miles, on a few hundred yards from the finish. I don't think she liked that, as after the race I tried to congratulate her, and I got the "evil eye". But that last mile was cool. I had a fast pace going, turned a corner, saw the finish line a couple of hundred yards away, kicked it in and finished strong. Great race. Nice finish. Good times!

Zero.

I had fun here. I got my medal, then walked down to the GOT MILK people and got my picture taken in a GOT MILK kinda funny thing. Then, for the first time, I got a 5 minute shoulder massage! Ohhhhh. My. GAUD! Love. Love. Loved that! Walked back to finish line to watch Mary finish.


The speed the earth orbits the sun.


Worth doing. Would have liked to stay longer for post race stuff...but we rarely do.