Grand Rapids Half Marathon 2006

Well, I did it.

To start with the night before the race could have gone better. I had to cover a soccer game that started at 6 p.m. Temp was about 40, but major gusting wind in my face that probably brought the wind chill down to somewhere in the low to mid 30s. T was gracious enough to accompany me to the game. Afterwards we went to Olive Garden for a little pre-race pasta. Only drawback, we didn’t get our food until 10 p.m. (It was a Saturday night.) We get home and get everything ready. She volunteered as a medical aid for the race and she had a meeting at 6 a.m. across town. Set the alarm for 5. Get up, I turn on the TV to check the weather. Weather Channel says it’s 4:08. Holy Crap we forgot to set the clocks back! Back to bed for both of us.

Made it downtown to the race by 7:20 for an 8 a.m. start. Jog about 0.5 mile warm-up and head to the bag check area. Only one small problem. They didn’t have any bags! They had expected us to bring our bags from the Expo!!!! Luckily I was parked less than a block away so I just jogged back to the truck to stow my stuff. Made it back to the porta-potty line about 10 minutes before the start of the race. Took care of business and made it to the start with a minute or two to spare.

We were off!

I made a pace chart for myself – starting slow and speeding up throughout the race. I knew what my goal times were for the first 4 miles so I was a bit surprised when we paced mile 1 and I was almost 2 minutes faster than I wanted to be! Thing is, it felt like a pretty maintainable effort so I just went for it. Also, the heart rate on my 305 didn’t work. At all during the race. Not sure why, but I’m going to check the battery sometime in the next few days.

Pretty uneventful for the early going, unless you count dodging people at the aid stations. Around mile 5 I hear a voice behind mention Oregon. Eventually we were next to each other and I had a nice conversation with a guy moving to Bend tomorrow. Yes, I’m jealous. I was still about a 1:20 ahead of my goal time.

Mile 6 I took a Gu. First time trying it. Not bad. DW managed to score some for me from her aid station.

Between mile 8 and 9 I passed T’s station. Got a big cheer. Felt good. (Have I mentioned how supportive she was through this whole thing? She even surprised me with a long sleeve tech t with the oval 13.1 on it!)

Around mile 9 the two courses diverged so I lost a lot of the people who had been around me so far. It was about this time my left hip started talking to me about how it wasn’t having fun anymore. Nothing new, so I tried my best to put it in the back of my mind. This was my slowest mile of the day. D@mn hip.

Mile 10 my right IT band joined in with the hip to let me know they both weren’t having any fun. 3.1 to go.

Mile 11 we came out of the trees along the path we were on and the wind picked up.
Mile 12. Just past the marker we turned back into downtown and the wind was in our face. Felt like I was on a treadmill. The last 300 yards or so were the worst, but at least I could see the finish line at this point.

Crossed the line – not looking at my watch! Shook the race director’s hand. Got my medal. Turned in my chip and sought out the beer.

Here are my splits:
Mile 1 9:52
Mile 2 10:08
Mile 3 10:15
Mile 4 10:13
Mile 5 10:12
Mile 6 10:02
Mile 7 10:06
Mile 8 10:13
Mile 9 10:44
Mile 10 10:03
Mile 11 10:13
Mile 12 10:23
Mile 13 10:32
Finish (my watch) 2:15:06
Chip time: 2:15:07

So I missed my goal by 4 minutes, but I couldn’t have given any more on the course. Very satisfied with my first race over 10k.

Now on to the Pig!!!

So this is the t-shirt T (did I mention how awesome and supportive she is) gave me, my medal, and the race shirt - also long sleeve tech t





A close-up of the medal.