Rainy 4th of July Half

Matt and I ran an inagural race to start our 4th of July this year. We wentdown to the start area on Saturday to pick up our packets and while we were there I encountered a strange woman. I was standing with Ophelia and she came up and started telling me how cute she was, asking her age, name, etc. And then proceeded to tell me that my child had an "iffy" name and making reference to Shakespeare. Okay, thanks for the infornation. Really, is it even possible to pick a name for your child that doesn't in some way associate with something negative?

After the half on Sunday I am remembering what I don’t like about racing, the early wake ups that are now even tougher with an infant. The race started at 6:30 and I knew it was going to be a tough one when it was already 80 degrees on our way there. We got there about 6am, figuring we’d have plenty of time to spare. Wrong! After waiting in the massive line for the bathroom, I started almost 7 minutes after the gun went off, good thing for chips. The interesting part is that the timing gave your place at the start and there were still over 200 people that started later than I did.

I am now off running and it is hot, but I am having fun passing people and making a game out of catching pace groups. At about mile 3 I caught up with Matt who actually started on time. About that time the rain started too, just a slight drizzle, but that quickly changed. Soon it was pouring and I was so happy I had decided to just run in a sports bra and didn’t have a wet shirt to deal with, but soon my feet were soacked and a little heavy. Things were good, I was averaging a little over an 8 min pace and I had hopes of getting under 1:45, which I needed for a corral 1 start for TCM.

Things were going good until about mile 7 where it was hill after hill and then my shoe came untied leading to 9 min pace. By mile 9 I was back close to pace and passing people, but had no idea about my time since my Garmin was going crazy from the rain. I just kept running and realized that I wasn’t tired and my GI system, despite doing nothing different, was still doing okay. No belly cramps only sore legs to deal with. Around mile 11 I passed the 1:55 pace group. Things were good and I thought I might still have a chance as I continued to push until I hit the last ½ mile that ran on trail that was now a huge slippery mud puddle. I finally came back to the pave course and see the finish line. The rain had slowed a little and I crossed at just under 1:54, still having no idea what I really ran.

The official time was 1:47:10, 8:11 pace. Not the 1:45 I needed, but after I thought about things I can’t be disappointed since this was my fastest run, training or race, in awhile. Due to all the fatigue, weakness, GI stuff I just haven’t been running well and have been going slow, even that has been tough. I have another month to get my time, so I am looking at another half in early August. My goal at TCM is to BQ, so the corral 1 is the only way I can start with (or near) the 3:40 pacers.