I knew today wasn’t going to be a fast run, but I wanted to see what I could do. Yesterday I bricked myself: in total I covered nearly 75 miles on a heavy steel roadie thats too big for me (20+ on gravel), ran a half marathon and covered several additional miles during the March For Our Lives. This after one of my rougher weeks health wise. For my 12th half marathon of the year, I wanted to see what I could do under these circumstances. I was targeting 1:35 – 1:40 with a fast start and finish, easing up slightly in the middle miles. Although I hoped for the lower portion of that, I’m certainly satisfied with the result.
The Sunrise Half Marathon was very different than yesterdays. While it was certainly a fun event there were several things that frustrated me. The day started off on a sour note when I picked up my bib and shirt. While this event had a Friday early packet pickup, there was no Saturday option. So when I arrived on race morning I was not too happy that they were out of my shirt size. I signed up nearly EIGHT months in advance, and specified the shirt size I wanted. On race day, I was told we don’t have medium in the blue, but we do in green. OK cool, I’ll take that… until I realized ‘that’ was a race shirt from a totally different event. No thank you, I’d like a shirt from the event I’m actually participating in. So I opted for the larger shirt (they ran out of both M & L) even though it wouldn’t be getting much use either. I’ve got no problem taking whatever size shirts are left when I sign up late, but I definitely shouldn’t have to do that when I’m among the first.
Since I wasn’t too worried about my time, I didn’t fret the warmup. Meandered around a bit and said hello to some of my running friends, then lined up at the start. There was a bit of a flagpole malfunction during the national anthem, and then some speaker issues. No worries… the crowd was quick to pick up singing the verse collectively. What really frustrated me at the start was the old man who pushed his way to the front of the pack (directly in front of me). At first I thought he was just trying to get a picture up there as there was a woman who snapped a few photos for him. But he stayed there. OK, who am I to judge? I’ve been smoked by older folk before. Maybe he was a lot faster than he looked. Then 3…2…1… GO! Guess not, I got stuck behind his slow start.
Once I managed to dodge him, I took off. For nearly three miles, I was right where I wanted to be. And then I wasn’t. My back really began to act up. I wasn’t too surprised. It’s been a rough week. Plus yesterday was a solid workout… or five! So I eased up a bit more than I’d originally hoped, as it is always important to keep it on the lighter side of the discomfort/destructive pain dial. Go easy and just enjoy the run. I wasn’t gonna win today anyway. I knew some of the local elites who showed up. Even on my best day I couldn’t touch the overall podium. But I could still have fun regardless, and that’s what this is all about.
Markham Park is a great place to run. Lot’s of beautiful trails to run within and around the park. This course took solid advantage of that, with most of the running on those parts. There were also a few miles on the roads in a very lightly trafficked corporate park. So this was a great course in that respect. Nice, quiet, and almost completely car-free. No major hills to worry about, so it was a fairly fast course. There were quite a few U or sharp turns on the course, so I wouldn’t call this a PR inducing course. Especially with that disheartening last little loop. The course started out with a loop in Markham Park, then ran out and around before coming back into the park and basically repeating the first loop. As you complete that loop, you run through the start line and off onto another mile or so loop within the park before finally ending up at the finish. Just when the scenery starts to look like you are almost home… the carrot moves way further down the road. I heard several runners talking about this same thing afterward. It really was a tease there at the end.
So that was that. Half marathon #12 of 2018 was in the books. I didn’t have the kick I wanted at the end, but I still had a great time once I finished. Crossed the line, backed away from the speakers (which still messes with my TBI’d brain), found some friends and found the food. Sandwiches, chips, cookies, fruits. Typical post race chow, which was much appreciated after my weekend calorie burn. I’d certainly say this weekend was a tough one. It definitely was a fun one. I’m sure I’ll end up at another Elite event in the future, and hopefully next time my performance will live up to that name a bit better too.