Weekend started off great with an easy drive up north. This was the first time either one of us had been to anywhere north of Muskegon so we were both a bit excited to see if the area would live up to all the hype. It did.
Checked into the hotel - Comfort Inn, HIGHLY recommended - and sought out a place for an early dinner. Travino's was recommended by the staff at the hotel. Great food, very decent prices. In/out just in time to head over to the expo. The expo may have been the most understated thing ever - would be better to call it a packet pickup and it was roughly the same size as some of the 5ks here in town. Super simple to pick up our stuff though. The race shirt was a great Brooks short sleeve tech shirt: they even had women's versions! and different colors for the different races. First of many high marks.
With the wake up coming early we set out our clothes and various things we would need in the morning and called it a night. 4:30 a.m. comes early!
By 5:30 a.m. we were at the hotel next door boarding the shuttle bus to the start/finish area so we could board a different bus and be shuttled out to the half marathon start line. The marathon is a true out/back course and the HM is a point-to-point starting at the turn around. Only drawback is that we made it to the start line with about 90 mins to kill and neglected to dress properly, but that was our fault, and if we ever do this race again won't be repeated.
7:30 a.m. race start - had the usual national anthem, etc, and we were on our way. There were no signs indicating where you should line up, so it was a bit congested at the start. About the middle of mile 2 I experienced the same problem as during the Riverbank Run: after standing out in the cool air, I had to pee. At least this time I stopped at the porta-potty. I managed to catch up to T just around the 2 mile mark.
Her goal for the day was to run 11:00 pace for the first 5 miles (hitting the 5 mile mark in 55 minutes) then drop to 10:30-10:45 pace for the next 5 miles (hitting the 10 mile mark at 1:47:30-1:48:45) and then pushing as hard as she could for the last 3.1 with the hopes of being around the 2:20:00 mark, which would be just over a 4 minute PR.
My plan was to help her with this...a plan which I executed miserably. We were cruising the first 5 miles. 10:30ish pace. Which means we had almost a 3 minute cushion. We went out way too fast.
The second 5 miles the pace slowed a bit and around mile 9 some physical issues started to rear their ugly head: some IT band problems and some foot pain.
BUT, we pushed on...in the last mile or so, the temperature started to climb and we were both feeling the effects - only major complaint on the day was that the aid stations were too spread out and the sports beverage, not sure if it was Gatorade, Gu Brew, Powerade, etc, wasn't mixed correctly. I nearly had to resort to draconian motivational techniques when T started walking in the last mile. She thought we were closer to the finish line, was overheating a bit, needed some water. About 100 feet ahead of us was a photographer on the course. I was on the verge of "motherf*cking" her and telling her there was no way we were walking by the photographer when a volunteer on the course beat me to the message. And she did it in a much more positive way. But we started running again.
Rounded the corner and finished on the track. With the exact same chiptimes: 2:21:31. Just about a 3 minute PR for her. And a PR is a PR. So while I didn't do a good job of helping her meet her goal, I did thoroughly enjoy being out there with her. Every step of the way.
My reward: This lovely Brooks jacket. That actually says Bayshore Half Marathon!
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