So I woke up yesterday morning in the hills of Fayetteville at some friends' house* with the crazy-ass notion of running the Hogeye Half Marathon. The main goal was to finish and not collapse. And that's not a forgone conclusion with any distance race: anything can happen out there, especially in a race that is promoting its route with the words "Now Less Hilly!" Yeah. Good times.
Unfortunately, the idea that a hilly half marathon might be a little masochistic didn't occur to me until 6am yesterday morning, when I woke up and could immediately tell that the day had the potential for complete and unmitigated disaster. My stomach was all sorts of messed up and my heart rate was elevated before I even got out of bed. Had I been home and planning a training run, I would've either bagged it or at least waited until I felt better later in the day. That wasn't an option yesterday morning, though. So onward I went, hoping I'd start to feel better once I got out there. At worst, I'd throw up or pass out, and get taken to the medical tent. Hey, at least I'd have a legitimate excuse for not finishing, right?
If you've been to Fayetteville, you are familiar with the hills. The run started in the historic Square, and it was by far the smallest race I've run so far. Everyone congregated en mass at a street corner near the starting line - no corrals, no seeding, just a mass of folks waiting to run. Some in kilts, some in tutus. To each his or her own, right?
It was small enough that when the National Anthem was sung just prior to the race, the entire Square got completely, eerily quiet while everyone turned towards the flag. The previous races I've run have had far too many folks to even begin to hear the anthem, let alone have everyone get quiet. It was a very nice way to start the race.
With the anthem sung, there was a "bang" and we were off. It was over 70 degrees at the start, which is nearly 40 degrees warmer than any previous half that I've run. The first two miles of the race were a few downhills from the square, and then uphill again and again and again through the U of A campus. It was pretty telling that when we hit the turnaround for the 5K runners (which happened about 1.5 miles into the course), I was already sweaty and a little jealous, wondering how the hell I was going to manage to eke out another 11.5 miles. So the first two very hilly miles shook out like this:
Mile 1: 10:06
Mile 2: 10:25
We hit mile 3, and it was nearly completely downhill.
Mile 3: 9:34.
God that felt good to go downhill! I was chugging Gatorade at every water station, wondering if I had managed to completely dehydrate myself with one glass of wine the night before. Doubtful. I've heard other runners talk about days that just weren't their days - maybe this was just mine? Or maybe I underestimated the effect of the heat, humidity and wind - I'm not sure.
Miles 4 through 9 were pretty straight forward, a few rolling hills, nothing too crazy. I was still trying to fight through whatever was bothering me, but by about mile 6, I had started to shake it off. A few caffeinated gels probably helped significantly. There was also this crazy-ass overpass near Sam's around mile 7 where we ran up and straight into the wind. It was everything I could do to keep plodding along over that bridge, being blown left and right by the 20+mph gusts.
Mile 4: 10:16
Mile 5: 10:16
Mile 6: 10:17
Mile 7: 10:13
Mile 8: 9:57
Mile 9: 10:03
If I had been thinking straight, I would've realized that I was clocking decent time because we had a tailwind. Maybe it was best I wasn't thinking straight, because any enjoyment I was managing to find would have just turned to dread.
I knew from looking at the elevation chart that the last 4 miles were a gradual incline, so I had been trying to hold a little back for that last push. Unfortunately, this was point on the course where the oh-so-helpful-and-friendly tailwind became an evil and vicious headwind. Combine that with the sadistic sun, and things started to go badly. Those conditions are ok for a quick 3 mile run, but not so much for the ass end of a 13 mile run that ends with several miles on a sometimes gradual / sometimes not so gradual incline...so not cool.
Mile 10: 10:35
Mile 11: 10:30
Mile 12: 10:59
Mile 13: 10:52
Mile 14 (.23 mile): 2.32 (11:04 pace).
Somewhere around Mile 12, I found myself getting inexplicably pissed off at whoever decided to hold the race on this particular day. What the hell were they thinking - didn't they KNOW eleven months ago that it was going to be this windy and hot today? That was when I decided to slow down just a wee bit. Delirium was setting in, and I was close enough to finishing that passing out, though it might sound nice, was no longer acceptable. I wanted to finish under my own power, not in the back of a medic van.
The last quarter mile or so was 100% uphill. Not just a gradual incline, but a significant grade. By the time I hit the finish line, my heart rate was redlining and I was DONE. I had a few moments post race where I thought I might either throw up or pass out. Fortunately for both me and my friends who made the trek out to see the finish, neither happened.
Overall thoughts on the race? I enjoyed the course - miles 8-13 were on the trails through town and were very pretty. It was also nice to run through campus on roads that would have terrified me during my college years on campus. My overall time, 2:16:40, comes out to about an average 10:20 pace, all miles under an 11:00 average. I'm not counting that last .23 average pace, 'cause that bastard was completely uphill at the end of the race. And it wasn't a complete mile. So there.
To be quite honest, I'm thrilled my time in this race. It's a solid 10 minutes slower than my LR half time, but with the weather, hills, and the way I felt that morning? That's actually a fantastic result for what I thought I could do. I placed in the top 25% in my age group (10 out of 40 is still top 25%, right?), and I feel pretty encouraged by how much my running has improved over the last few years. If a "bad" race results in a 10:20 average, maybe my dream goal of breaking a 2 hour half is reachable...guess we'll see.
*Our friends let me crash there literally with last minute notice, and it was much appreciated!
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