SIC Half Marathon

I'm sitting at home right now walking around like an old man. My quads are on fire and do not want to move, but I was able to make my way over to the computer to post about my first half marathon. This was the last run as part of the Winter Meltdown Series that included the Hearts on Fire 5K in February and the Run of Luck 7K in March.

Assuming I completed, this would be the longest run that I would ever completed. Well, actually, it would have been at about 7.6 miles, but I had no intention of stopping early. My basic goals were to finish the run and not walk at any point. I had a secondary goal of completing the run within 2 hours, 30 minutes. I wasn't sure what to expect since my training had taken a bit of a hit with stuff at the gym, weather and some other scheduling conflicts. I was more concerned with the beating my legs would take over how in shape I was.

Having never run this distance, I wanted to play it safe and make sure that I positioned myself to keep a comfortable pace. The last thing I wanted to do was to get caught up in a pack that was moving fast and end up burning myself out. I moved into the 12 minute/mile area figuring the pack would spread out enough by the time I might consider picking up the pace.

The gun sounded at 7:15 am at the Vanderburgh County 4-H Grounds, after a traffic hold-up created a need for a brief delay. It took an extra minute for my part of the pack to pass the sensor, which was followed by a slow pace with everyone trying to find their space. Once we hit the open road, it was a little easier to maneuver. The route can be viewed here (check the blue line).

The first three miles had some rolling hills to contend with. I learned on my shorter runs earlier in the year not to hold back on any descents. I usually made up some ground whenever I was moving downhill and used that momentum as long as I could once the road flattened out. After the hills, the route flattened out considerably.

Heading north for a considerable stretch was nice with a nice tailwind. Between the wind and a nice shuffle of music that was playing on my phone, I was feeling pretty ambitious to pick up the pace. Of course, whenever you run a loop, the tailwind will become a headwind at some point.

After turning to the east, the wind crossed over the road and provided a nice relief to cool down a bit. I wasn't exactly moving along at the clip I was earlier, but it was worth it. Miles 8-9 was an "out and back" stretch that put the wind to my back on the way out, but right back in my face on the way in. Whatever speed I picked up headed north was lost once I hit the turnaround point.

With the vast majority of the run from this point heading south, this was the home stretch. Unfortunately, I started hitting my "wall" at Mile 10. I could feel my quads starting to tighten up and my calves hinting that they wanted to cramp. It was hard to not stop and stretch, but I knew that if I stopped moving, I would be in trouble. I needed to bite my lip, hope for the best and finish this out.

After a stretch heading east, we had one last stretch heading south. Leandra drove out there and took a couple of pictures as I was running by. I made sure to get really close to her (as you can tell from the picture on the right) and said, "I hurt." She said that I only had a mile to go and the 12 Mile marker was a few steps further down the road. It was a relief to know I was almost done. I just had to hope that my legs would hold out.

Turning back into the 4-H Grounds, the finish line was in sight. I had made up my mind that I needed to finish strong and once we hit the guard rails leading up to the finish line, I picked up my pace to sprint (or the closest to a sprint that my legs had at that point) to bring the run to end. As I slowed down, my left hamstring IMMEDIATELY cramped up and I needed to use the guard rails to help me walk...check that, limp...to meet my wife.

I was able to walk the cramp off, but my legs were pretty much done at that point. I got them worked on by an on-site massage group, which provided some temporary relief, but it didn't really do much in the big picture. I grabbed some free food and drink and then headed home to languish in the "agony of da-feet" for the day.

I don't have much experience with these types of runs so I can't say if it was good or bad. The run goes through the northwestern section of the county, and stays outside the city limts. There are a lot of fields in that area. With nothing really growing at this point, it's not overly scenic. That said, I bike on many of these same roads and it was nice to have these roads closed to traffic during the run. As far as my goals:
1.) I finished the run.
2.) I ran the entire route.
3.) I completed it in 2 hours 18 minutes.

My knees aren't really sore as I thought they would have been. It's the quads and hip flexors that are sore right now. Let's just say that I'm not exactly leaping up the steps from the basement right now. I anticipate being laid up for at least two more days and already found a sub for my Kick class on Tuesday.

All in all, I'm pleased with the final results. Now that the half marathon is out of the way, bring on the baby!