The CHaD Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

This race was a lesson learned (I hope!). The Garmin temp sad avg temp was 89 degrees. I think this is because a storm came in and it dropped dramatically at the end of the race. I'm confident the race temp was in the low 90's with high humidity. Forecast was calling for high nineties. Anyway, when I saw the temps for this race, I lost some focus, and blew off my prep leading up to the day. I drank a lot of water Friday, but also went to a ball game with FIL and DW, and had a few beers, and a cheese steak for dinner (Nice carbo-load!?!) Then, DW suggested we rent a movie, so I ended up falling asleep on the couch, and didn't get up to bed until 1 AM. I'm getting too old to get away with that crap... :-)
The late afternoon race left me with a half day of house stuff to take care of. The lawn needed to be mowed so I took care of that, and sweated my butt off. Took care of some other indoors stuff, and headed North around 1:45.
The heat and humidity was oppressive, but I think that it was even tougher to deal with because we've had such unseasonably cool temps the last week or two. How long does it take to "de-acclimate"?
At the start, I decided I felt pretty good. I prefer heat over cold, but even I have to admit it slows me down...
Anyway, started out right near the FOP, and only had a couple folks to work around. I felt loose, and pretty rested, and started thinking about this net downhill course, and started getting visions of PR's etc... Mile 1 was 5:55, and it felt easy. Mile 2 was also 5:55 and I realized I better chill, but I was with a couple of others who seemed to be like minded. There was an uphill on mile three, and I started to realize I was working too hard too early. I kept trying to chill, but hearing footsteps behind me, and PR thoughts kept me from slowing. Mile 4 was back <6 at 5:58. By mile 5, I knew I had gone out too fast. I was already working way too hard for this distance. I've always prided myself on pretty even splits, and even efforts, but it was not to be today. At mile 6 I did a mental self- assessment - still hoping against hope I could maintain the pace, but realized I was just running out of E too fast. From there, it truly was just a battle to keep going. I slowed to high 6's and low 7's the rest of the way in. If someone had offered me a ride anywhere after mile 7 I would have accepted it! I was spent, and defeated. I almost stopped and walked - stopped and quit several times. It was just nasty. There were a lot of trees, fortunately, but the straight-aways were brutal in the sun. Somehow, I dug in and kept plodding away... It felt like forever. Fortunately, it was a really nice course -with tons of Voly's, live music along the way - and some very encouraging spectators. I try to thank as many people as I can when racing, but usually the best I could manage was a weak "thumbs up" in response the their claps and cheers. Gasped a "thank you" to the kind folks with hoses. I would take off my hat, and point it into the spray as I went through. Not sure if that helped much or not....
The strangest part of the run was that, as I plodded along at training run pace, I truly expected to be run down and passed by the masses. They never showed up. I was only passed by one runner in the second half, and I'm pretty sure he was a relay guy. And, I actually passed two. Obviously, I wasn't the only one affected by the heat. The times were slower by 7-10 minutes across the board, so I guess I was OK from that perspective. It just felt pretty horrible.
I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a finish line! Managed to run it in to the cheers os many folks out despite the heat. DW and FIL were waiting and cheering me in - very nice! Poor timing chip guy had to unlace my stinky soaking sneaks to get at my chip - He was super-nice though...
This is the part that absolutely breaks my heart. As I sat in a chair at the finish for a few minutes, the sky darkened, and the air cooled dramatically, I actually got chilly. We looked in the distance ,and saw lightning - dark clouds etc... DW and FIL were hungry, so instead of going back to cheer on others as per usual ,we decided to grab some chow before it started to rain. Post race "clock party" was free for me, and only $5 for DW and FIL. I walked over, and everything was beautifully set up. The had several huge grills with tone of food ready to go - it was still all wrapped up in foil etc... I think I was the first runner over there. I grabbed a kielbasa and some corn on the cob. DW and FIL went to buy meal tix, but saw lightning, and decided against it. We wandered down the block as the wind started to pick up. They had tons of tables with paper table clothes, and it looked GREAT! DW said they had been working their butts off in the heat getting everything prepped. And it really looked fantastic! There was a live band jammin' away - everything was set for a wonderful event! Then, that bitch - mother nature - decided to put an end to it. She came in with some wicked gusts of wind that blew off the table cloths - blew down the signs, and took out the power for the band. In 30 seconds, it went from a wonderful block party atmosphere to a panicked, chaotic scramble! We took cover in a doorway to avoid getting hit by debris flying around. The band's tent almost got blown off from over them as they scrambled for cover. I'm ashamed that I caught DW's eye - nodded - and got the hell out of dodge at that point. She had parked just around the corner, so we scramble to the car, and got out of there just before the heavy rain hit. I feel SO BADLY for the CHaD folks!! They had put together a FIRST CLASS event. and it was just ripped apart in minutes. I don't know if they were able to recover and make an evening of it, or if it was all done from there. Power was out downtown, and my heart went out to the hardy runners still plugging away in the rain and wind. I was heart broken as we snuck out of town in the pouring rain....
I will definitely be back for this race next year, and make an effort for some of the fundraising they do. It's a really good cause, and they deserve it. Ugghhhhh!!


Pace better for the conditions!

Sat down on a chair and slugged back a few waters...


Heat - prep - etc...


Again -an awesome event! Wonderfuly Voly's and tons of support! GREAT looking block party set up post-race. I PRAY they'll do this again next year because it looked like tons of fun! :-(