Love Rox Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

SO... weather was a major issue here. It was pretty miserable the whole time. But it wasn't raining at the start. Everyone was spread out across Brown's Island to start. It quickly turned into a bottleneck when we were forced onto a sidewalk. Then there was another bottleneck at the first set of stairs (down). I thought initially I was running too fast, so I tried to pace myself. But then my first 2 miles were over 13 min ea. So I ran faster. My second 2 miles were in the 11's, but I was distrustful of the mile signs. Then I didn't see another until mile 8 or something. Anyway... after the out and back, it was up stairs and across a bridge. I was warming up, had a gel, feeling decent. Most of the course on the other side of the river was uphill. Then back across a long bridge with lots of traffic. It was wet and drizzly. I was trying to keep my feet dry, but it was becoming very hard to see since I wear glasses. After crossing the long bridge, more uphill, and then the worst hill of all - very steep up, then very steep down, all on wet bricks. The downhill was so steep I was afraid of falling, and it was rough on the knees. Then back to the start/finish (hello finishing chute. see you in 6 more miles...). By the start of loop 2, it was raining, and there were occasional chilling wind gusts. I had taken off my jacket but ended up putting it back on. Up the stairs was much slower second time. On the bridge, a car went through a puddle and soaked my legs. Boo. Knowing the terrain, I was mentally prepared for the uphill. When I saw mile 9 I calculated my pace and decided I probably wouldn't make a PR. Then at mile 10, I re-calculated it, and realized that I COULD get a PR. Tired brain = bad math. I picked up the pace and tried to do 12's for the last 5k. The long bridge back over the river was a slog, with cold wind and rain towards the end. I started thinking how I couldn't imagine doing this after swimming and biking... then I had to talk myself out of thinking about that and just focus on the race at hand and not some future race! Finally, onto the bad, slick brick hill up and down, and then an easier downhill and into the chute. Richard was at the finish and cheered me on. I think I was far in the back to start. I passed people for the entire race (sometimes it took a mile or more to catch up) and was only passed by two in the last couple miles.

..and I just realized that last time I did 2:37:47, NOT 2:47:37. So I actually didn't get a PR. And I missed my 12:15 goal by 20 seconds or so. Hm. I wonder if I could have made that time up if I knew how close I was...? :/

UPDATE official time was faster by about 30 s and puts me at a 12:14 pace! Yay!

Train better. (Hard to train consistently in December.) There were probably better clothing options, but I'm don't know what they are. Haven't done any training in rain/snow.

Hung onto Richard. Begged to be carried into the warming tent. He laughed. Found a few remaining orange slices (only thing that sounded good). Sat down for a while. Got some water. Went to port-o-potty. Decided it was time to go (our babysitting was running out). So we had to walk back up the hill to the car. Then we went to Five Guys to grab burgers for the ride home. I was going to meet up with enders_shadow and artemis, but there wasn't time. I was bummed b/c I wanted to talk HIM plans with enders_shadow and hear how they were doing!


Mostly the weather. But also I could have trained better early on. I don't think forgetting my inhaler was a problem. I didn't notice any wheezing or coughing. In any case, the race went according to plan. No major issues.


February is a crapshoot with the weather, but, then again, it's better than 95 deg. First time they did this race. Pretty views, but some significant hills and stairs.

This was the first year and they have some significant kinks to work out.