Race Day!!!!

The 3M Half Marathon was today. In addition to getting a packet filled with post-it notes and other 3M products, I finished with a time which was nearly a minute per mile faster than last year. This only earned me 3,620th place (out of 4,451) but it sure felt good to me. Here is a recap of race weekend.

Friday Night:
I loaded my iPod for the race. Under race rules, headphones are not allowed, but I can't imagine running for that long without music to keep me going. I chose a selection which was heavy on live albums since they are faster paced. Some of the music I chose included The Who, the Altar Boys, Undercover, Fantom 2, Evanescence, Bowling for Soup, Jimmy Eat World and Lost & Found. I chose about five hours of music. This is way longer than the race will be, but with the shuffle feature on the iPod, it means that I will have a wide variety of music to listen to.

Saturday:
Stephanie and I signed up to referee for a soccer tournament today. I was a little reluctant to do this because refereeing can be pretty draining. Although I only did three games myself, I was out at the field for most of the day. My feet hurt, which is not a good thing. I came home from refereeing and took a short nap. After that, Val, Stephanie and I packed our bags and we headed up north. I have decided to spend the night at the Embassy Suites hotel, which is right by the starting line so that I won't have to get up at an impossibly early hour tomorrow morning. We eat dinner at Carrabba's Italian restaurant and I have a big plate of spaghetti and drink a lot of water. I have been drinking water all day although I fear that I used up a lot of my hydration on the soccer field. I don't know if eating spaghetti will really help me. However, I try to avoid carbs most of the time, so this is a good excuse. I find myself nodding off during dinner, which is not a good sign.

Sunday:

6:15 a.m.
The alarm wakes me from a sound sleep. I drag out of bed and realize that the race starts in just 45 minutes. I get ready pretty quickly, but it is still just about five minutes till race time when I walk out the front door. The Bar & Grill singers are singing the national anthem as I approach the starting line. The sky is just starting to lighten up and the weather is perfect. It is cool, but not really cold like last year. I find a spot to loosen up and do a little stretching. I work my way to the back of the pack to find a comfortable place to start where I won't get run over.

7:15 a.m.
I cross the starting line. It takes a while for everyone to work through the starting gate. They say that there are about 5,000 people registered for this race. That is a lot of people who want to run 13.1 miles on a Sunday morning. At the back of the crowd where I am, there are a lot of people like me who don't have the classic runner's physique.

7:26 a.m. (Mile 1)
We run north on Stonelake Blvd. I cross mile 1 at 11:15. This is a bit faster than the 12:00 minute pace I have set for myself. I feel a small sense of accomplishment for being part way there.

7:49 a.m. (Mile 3)
We have run under Hwy. 183 and turned south, gone by the Arboretum and are now running down through a residential section of Mesa Blvd. I made a point to slow down for the first water stop at mile 2. Although I don't don't need it yet, I know that I will need it later. I plan to stop at each water stop. I have also brought a pocketful of energy goo which I will use every 3 miles to keep me going. At mile 3, there is a sign reading "Almost there, just ten miles to go." Someone has a twisted sense of humor. So far I have run the same distance as my usual morning jog, so it is not too bad. It has taken me 34 minutes to get this far, which is about 2 minutes under my pace. I know that I should try to pace myself for the long run, but I am still glad to have built up a little cushion. There are a lot of spectators along this leg. A little boy holds out his hand to give a high five to the passing runners.

8:13 a.m. (Mile 5)
From Mesa, we turned east on Spicewood Springs Road. There were jugglers there. We pass mile 4. I try to figure out how many times 4 goes into 13. I think I have covered about 28% of the race, but can't be sure of my math. We follow Spicewood as it crosses over Mopac. The rest of the race will be on the east side of Mopac from here on out. As we approach MoPac, there is a bagpiper playing for us. I hear him before I can see him and it takes a moment to realize that the sound is not coming from my iPod. It is a bit of an effort to cross the overpass over MoPac. I am starting to feel a little tired. However, after covering five miles in 57 minutes, I am now 3 minutes ahead of my intended pace.

8:25 a.m. (Mile 6)
It took me 12:30 to cover this mile. This is the first mile I have done below pace. I was intentionally taking it easy to avoid burning out. I am feeling more tired and I have a long way to go. If I start losing time this early, the rest of the race doesn't bode very well. The water stop at mile 6 is sponsored by Texas Gas. They have a mascot dressed up like a gas meter to greet us.

8:38 a.m. (Mile 7)
Another slow mile at 12:30. However, I feel a sense of accomplishment for being over half way there. We run behind Northcross Mall. The relay exchange point (for those doing a relay) was at 6.4 miles. We are now going down a very long stretch on Burnet Road. I am starting to get a second wind now.

???? (Mile 8 1/2)
I am now at the point in the race which strikes fear into my heart. We turn onto North Loop. There is a long series of hills here. Last year this, this stretch did me in. I had to walk on the hills and never really got my momentum back. At the end of long long uphill is one of my wife's favorite places in Austin, Room Service Vintage. We bought our dinette set there, as well as a 1950s party dress for Stephanie to wear in an elementary school musical. The hills are insidious. At first, there is a slightly steep but short hill, but after cresting it, there is another and another. I am still moving moving okay when I crest the third hill and reach mile 9. After some easy going, there is another long, gentle hill leading up to Room Service Vintage. I think to myself, "This is just like shooting womprats in Beggar's Canyon, Use the force Luke." Actually I really think that this is like the hills that I trained on on Escarpment and William Cannon. However, the line from Star Wars is funnier. I am beginning to feel a little bit goofy.

???? (Mile 10)
As we round the corner onto Duval, I am still going strong. There is just 3.1 miles left. That is the same distance that I do in my sleep before work most mornings. Not only that, but I can see the monolithic buildings of UT in the distance. I know from last year that when I reach UT, there will just be one mile left. After several miles below pace, I am still 1:30 ahead of a 12:00 minute mile. It is all down hill from here.

???? (Mile 11)
I feel great. I am having an enjoyable time running past the quaint, over-priced houses north of campus. After running for 11 miles, I am picking up a little speed which is a really great sign. Last year at this point, I felt like a character in Stephen King's short story "The Long Walk" (if you haven't read it, it involves a contest where you have to maintain a pace of 4 mph or be shot). Looking at the numbered streets, I can count down the blocks to the finish line (about 20 or 30, I think). Somewhere along this mile, I listen to my second hymn from Lost & Found. Their album, Speedwood Hymns, features traditional Lutheran hymns played really fast. It is the perfect accompaniment for a Sunday morning endurance run.

???? (Mile 12)
I pass the Posse East, site of many One Bad Pig (a band I briefly represented) shows, as I cross onto the UT campus and pass mile 12. There is a guy in liederhosen playing the accordion, which I can't hear because my iPod is turned up all the way. There is just one mile left. I am feeling really tired, but I also feel like I can push myself some more. I see someone named Cesar in a soccer jersey who I haven't seen since just before mile 3. As a I pass by the UT stadium, I am pushing myself to keep going, but am starting to really feel the distance. I am counting down the blocks. At 23rd street, I figure that I am just 10 blocks from the end. It is a weird combination of adrenaline and exhaustion. I am now running with a group of people I have seen before. There is Cesar in the soccer jersey, a husband and wife running together and a solidly-built woman in a green shirt. As we move through the UT campus, we trade places several times. We leave UT crossing over MLK. The end can't be much further, but I am finding that I don't have the legs for a sprint. The others in our little pack move ahead of me. We come over a hill and suddenly the finish line is in sight. It is at Trinity and 14th, about a block earlier than I though it would be. I pull my earphones out so that I can take a better picture at the finish line. Realizing that the end is closer than I expected gives me a little adrenaline to pick up the pace. I try to catch the woman in the green shirt, but she has picked up the same excitement that I have. I am now breathing hard for the first time all day as I try to push myself for the last tenth of a mile.

9:49 a.m.
I cross the finish line and stop my watch. I have finished in 2 hours 34 minutes 15 seconds. I have blown away last year's time by 8 minutes and have finished below my goal of 12 minutes per mile. Val and Stephanie are waiting for me at the finish as I receive my medal. (Everyone who finishes this race gets a medal, which is a nice touch. Of course, the really fast people get money as well). I stumble around the finish line as I look for the food line. I pick up a couple of breakfast tacos (which I feel that I deserve) and then we walk back to the car which is parked a few blocks away at my church. This year's race is over.