Stats are in on the Country Half Marathon

I fared well. Finished in the top 15% in my age group in a little over 2 hours and 7 minutes. I have the full story on another blog. Click here to read about it.

Nashville Country Half Marathon

I rolled to the finish line, rock'n and roll'n to fine country music this morning, arriving about the same time as those Kenyan runners in the full marathon. They were vying for the 10,000 prize and the $10,000 bonus on who crossed the finish line first. The ladies were given an 18-minute head start to make it a contest. This is an interesting event from many angles. It has gotten better every year in its 10 year history. This year they opened up a pasta dinner cruise for contestants the night before the race. They also made the course more difficult by adding the famous streets in downtown Nashville. That added steep hills near the end of the race. I was physically stressed to the limit and made sure I kept myself a survivor at the end. I saw one girl collapse and felt I could do the same if I was not careful. It was too hot for a marathon, 15 degrees higher this year than last year. At the last minute, they added several water stations and had fruit at several places. There was location where a resident turned on their water hoses and was giving cooling showers. I went into it and came out soaked. But of course I was already soaking wet from sweat. How great that water spray felt!!!

The preliminary stats gave me a 2 hour and 8 minute finish. I wanted a 1 hour 53 minute finish but that was not in the cards today. 36000 contestants lined up in corrals (it felt like we were cattle as well.) I could not see any end to runners in either direction - behind or in front of me. I was in the 6th corral, with runners expecting to complete their race in 1hr and 53 or so minutes. I lost the 8 minutes when I nearly collapsed going up the hills. Three times I walked part of an uphill section. The street was crowded all the way. Very little space to run past people. At the end, there was insufficient space to properly cool down. Everyone came to an abrupt stop, but I did find a place to sit down and stretch.

Sarah's First Half Marathon - Houston Marathon 2009

I was a lucky dad yesterday to be able to see my daughter run her first half marathon race. She did it in about 2 hours 10 minutes, finishing in the top 10% of her peer age group. Her time was about a 10 minute mile average, maybe even less. Congratulations to Sarah for such a high accomplishment! This photo is four miles into the 13.1 mile race.

Sarah getting ready to run half-marathon

Sarah is gearing up to run in the Houston Half Marathon on Sunday. I have registered to be notified when she crosses 6.2 miles(10K), 9 miles(21K) and finishes at 13.1 miles. This service is provided free and is an automatic text message sent as as an athlete passes over the detection pad at those locations.

2009 Marathon

I am considering the Austin Marathon this year. I have plenty of time to train. The half-marathon is probably the target, although I am going to wait until I see what I can do. I am already running 4 miles.

Leadership comes from Sarah this time

Yes, my daughter has shown me once again to try even when it seems like you cannot do it. I did not register for the next Houston Half-Marathon thinking it was instantly full like Sarah discovered. However to my surprise, those on the waiting list were added to the roster yesterday. I did not get on that waiting list, but may do that today in case they open it up again.

As a result I finally got off my rear and ran yesterday evening. It really felt good! Now maybe I can get myself into some events this fall.

New milestone passed - Bear Chase Half Marathon 2008

I am happy to report that I accomplished this goal and have as a result, passed another milestone in my life. Unfortunately, Jeff was not able to participate, so I did it alone. The night before, I got everything together to rapidly leave the house early the next morning. I did not sleep well. I got up at 4:15AM on Saturday and could not find my short-sleeved running shirt. So I found a substitute. I had my long sleeve shirt in my carrying bag also. I have learned to carry a bag with me to a race and check it in when I am ready to begin the race. The weather turned out to be chilly - 47 degrees. I arrived at the starting point at 6:15AM. The school was not easy to find in this little town, but a policeman gave me directions. This was the first annual Bear Chase Marathon. Participants came from several countries including UK and several states as far away as Washington. I met one runner from Georgia in the shower afterwards who told me that he was on vacation and plans his vacations with marathon stops. He said this was an easy race and flat.

The truth is there was more than 300 feet of elevation change on the course. Although there were only a few places where the hills were of any significance, one had to run on an incline for long long distances. That proved to me to be a challenge. The beginning of the course was a 1-mile sandy road, leaving the football stadium at the high school. That connected to a small two-lane country highway where you pass farms (you could hear the cows) and country homes. Here were the long climbs and descents. Alongside the highway were many colorful wildflowers. This led to the Davy Crockett State Park, part of the Big Thicket forest of East Texas. About 4 miles on this road, we came to a gravel and dirt road for the third segment. This is where person can really enjoy the forest. The trees are huge and the forest is thick. This segment was about 1.5 miles in with a turnaround and 1.5 miles back.

I finished within my goal of 2 hours in the 58th position. The theme was you are "chasing" a bear (or as the emblem implies, being chased). It was a very organized but relaxed race environment. Some contestants walked a large part of it. The course was open for 7 hours. Near the end, about at the 12 mile point, I drank some Gatorade passed out by the youngsters helping at the odd mile markers. I started to have side cramps and not feeling well. I had to slow down and overcome the problem. I did, and by the time I entered the stadium I was running at a pretty good pace. On entering the stadium, we ran an entire lap, sort of a victory lap where your name, city and placement was announced over the speaker system. Each contestant had their name posted on the rails of the track with a congratulations on completing the run. We got to bring those back as a souvenir. As each person crossed the finish line, the announcer congratulated him on finishing the race. A bear with your finishing number and a medal was awarded to each contestant crossing the finish line. The organizers had some small refreshments to help them recover. That was perfect for me. Then a bit later, they served hot dogs and chips. They had a small town festival at noon; we were invited to stay, but I had already committed my time to work in our own small town festival here in The Woodlands, "Earth Day".

The really good news is that I had no shin splint pain at all and no injuries. One participant fell during the race and had blood on his face as I passed him in the forest. But he was going to run anyway!

Statistics
58th of 149 runners or 39th percentile of all age groups
4th of 5 from The Woodlands
3rd of 8 in my age group
Time achieved: 1:57:44 Pace: 9 mi/min
Time Goal: 2:00:00

Scary Month of March - Half Marathon critical month

Runner World calls it Monster Month.¹ I call it Scary Month. March is the time to determine if we are fit enough to do the race. Three weeks before the race, we are supposed to forget about running the distance. It is all about the elapsed time endurance training. So about the end of March, we should taper our training program down so that our soft tissues are ready for the gruelling distance and associated body stress that comes with a Marathon or Half Marathon.

Personally, I think I can do it, despite the minor but potentially hazardous issues I am currently having with Shin Splints. I have abandoned my plan for highly strenuous training. I can now see that I have done the work I needed to do and now need to focus on maintaining and doing one long run before the race in April. I will take a week more of rest before I start the final training up to that end, the killer month! I will begin to use my new shoes since I have been approaching the maximum on the older ones. I was told today to not use them past 400 miles and I have passed some 320 miles or so. They said the shoes might be helping to cause the shin splints. On hindsight, maybe I should have used them on last Saturdays race. But then again, how smart would it have been to use new shoes on the day of the race? I have no idea yet what they will do for me.

The dress rehearsal¹ should come at the third week of March. I will put it on my calendar for March 23rd. This will be a distance run, not race, but a two hour run in my race gear. I will not care about the distance, but it must be on pavement like we will race on and maybe even on the roads where we will run. Jeff may go with me; we will see. With constantly rising temperatures during these weeks, it is any one's guess what we will face on run day. The plan is to dress for heat, not cold, but take gloves with us in case of cold. I will carry water on the run as well, so the dress rehearsal will have a little extra weight than normal.

¹ Half Marathon Training

Welcome note from coordinator of the marathon

We look forward to seeing you on April 12th. I'm sorry it has taken so long to get back with you but we've been busy with work and running a marathon or two every weekend.

The course will be certified by race day and both of you will easily survive. If we can run 40 marathons this year, you two can easily accomplish your goal. It's inspiring to see a father/son team sharing the same vision.

Merry Christmas,
steve&paula
www.50statesmarathonclub.com/bear.html