On December 13, 2009 I ran the White Rock Half Marathon and almost didn’t live to tell about it. I will begin, like my previous post, on how horrible I am at training. I had been training pretty consistently for a few weeks and was ready for the half marathon about 5 weeks before the actual race. In the five weeks leading up to the race, I moved, went on vacation, and stopped working out in general. I maybe had one or two runs in those five weeks… so, I’m sure you know where this is going. Come race day, I was not prepared, but not being one to back out of a high amounts of pain, I still went ahead and gave it a shot.
Unlike last race, I didn’t have a huge urge to hit the john before the race, I actually felt pretty relaxed. The race was huge and the weather was amazing, around 45 degrees, excellent running weather.
The race began and I felt pretty good. I was running 8 minute miles and felt amazing. Then came mile 8 and my slow decent into the pits of hell. At this point I can tell I’m no longer “feeling like a champ”, I’m slowing down considerably, around 30 seconds/mile, and I just don’t want to do this anymore. Mile 10 rolls around and I’m ready to get this over with, the torture needs to stop and I just want to walk the rest of the way. Mile 12 rolls around and I feel what will soon manifest itself as a giant cramp in my left leg. Sure enough about 100 yards from the finish line it hits me like a ton of bricks. A huge knot in my leg, a cramp so intense I could barely stand straight as my eyes watered. A Kodak moment for sure. Regardless, the crowd was pretty thick at this point and they seemed to get a little louder when they saw me struggling, so I limped the last 100 yards and across the finish line.
Ultimately, I achieved my goal which was come in under 2 hours. With a little more training I think I can knock out 1:45 and if I push really hard maybe even 1:30. We shall see, I still want to qualify for Boston one day.
Distance
HALF MAR
Clock Time
2:02:11
Chip Time
1:52:39
Overall Place
1416 / 8365
10K Split Rank
723
10K Split Time
49:40
10 Mile Rank
939
10 Mile Time
1:22:36
~david