P. F. Chang's Rock 'N' Roll Arizona Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

As we crossed the timing mats, I couldn't help but feel really excited for the race. I came in with few expectations and was really looking forward to racing for fun. Right away I was feeling pretty comfortable but knew full well that this was going to hurt. The first couple of miles clicked off with little fanfare. The irony of running past homeless people backdropped by some sort of lot which had chain link fences topped in razor wire was not lost on me. To be sure, this is not the prettiest half marathon course. Around the 5k mark, a little abdominal cramping set in on my right side which would come and go most of the race. It was also starting to feel warm and I regretted wearing sleeves just a little bit. I think I drank pretty smartly in this race. I skipped the first aid station all together and then only drank a bit at each one following. The goal was to drink to thirst and I succeeded in that. I also think I ate pretty smartly by not eating much. I had 2 Clif Shot Bloks the whole race and didn't suffer at all because of it. This is a huge departure from my former strategy of a whole gel every 45 minutes or so. Anyhow, I passed the halfway mark at almost exactly an hour and thought that I might have a shot at a PR but also knew that the only hills on the course were to come, that I'd be hurting more and more as the miles went by and that the temp would continue to rise. At an aid station somewhere around 7 or 8 miles, I got caught in a pack and ended up having to walk a bit and boy howdy did that hurt. That's when I knew I was going to have to suck it up to finish this with any sort of strength. Miles 8 - 11 felt like really long ones just from my inability to distract myself from the pain and boredom. The abdominal cramps were really starting to set in more seriously and more permanently, too. After mile 11, the wheels sorta came off and I had to walk a couple of times due to the cramping. Somewhere on the bridge over Tempe Town Lake, I was taking a little walk break, hands on hips, and a woman ran up and grabbed my elbow and said "you can't walk NOW!" and got me to move my ass along. About mile 12.5 I got a nice little finish boost when somebody in the crowd yelled "you all get to go have Dairy Queen tonight" and I got SOOOOOOOOOO excited by that. So I started hauling ass as much as I could. A couple of tenths out from the finish, I looked at my watch and realized that I just might be able to set a new PR by a couple of seconds if I sprinted. So I gave it is much as I could, weaving through all the other runners and blew across the line just missing it by about 10 seconds.

Train. :)

Moseyed along with all the other thousands of runners trying to keep my quads from cramping up. They were NOT happy with that finish line sprint (nor the pounding the 13 miles prior). I actually contemplated going to medical to ask to get a bag of saline but there were some in much worse shape than me. For whatever reason, my stomach wasn't in its usual revolt and accepted some nutrition. The Cytomax was good, some salty chips better and the bullet popsicle divine. Eventually we made our way back to the car and fought lots of traffic to get out. What might've been most amazing was that there were still THOUSANDS of people still out on the half mary course after 3 hours of race time had already passed. Our route out ended up paralleling the course and there were people back as far as the halfway mark. Boy, talk about a LONG day for them.


Training.


Considering the nearly 30000 participants between the half and full marathon, this is UNBELIEVABLY well organized.