On the other side of the coin, I was still feeling disappointed that my wife was not going to be able to run the half marathon with us. She had been training with our son in a stroller, but we found out a couple days before that while strollers are allowed, anyone on the course is considered a participant and must be fully registered, even a riding toddler. We asked for help at the Expo but were told quite candidly that there was nothing that could be done. While I have certain feelings about the policy itself, and am upset that it was not clearly stated on the event's website, it really didn't matter. We did not ask the right questions to clarify the policy, we were not able to make other arrangements for our son in time and my wife was unable to use her registration. It definitely put a damper on the event for me, but I had to find a way to run the race I had trained for all these months.
My emotions were definitely running high. A moment of silence in tribute to the Boston Marathon victims and the National Anthem being sung by all participants added to the emotionally charged atmosphere. Sweet Caroline blasted through the speakers in the moments leading up to the horn as another tribute to Boston. I couldn't wait to hit the course.
One of my favorite things about a big race is the sea of people swarming to the start line, and I couldn't wait to snap a picture to capture this moment. I got my phone shoved back into my pocket just as I hit the mat, I started my watch and I was off.
After a minute or so I checked my pace to see what kind of a start I was off to and my watched showed 00:00. After a spit second if high anxiety I re-hit the start button, double checked that it was going, and I was off...again.
I let the masses dictate the first mile, but everyone seemed to get out pretty fast so, that worked well for me. In mile two, a steady uphill begins. The masses began to slow, but the downtown streets were clogged, so I had to force the pace a little, shucking and jiving through the crowd. I ran a lot more east to west than I would have preferred but it was necessary to keep pace and I was right where I needed to be at a little over 8:00/mile through the first 3 miles.
What goes up, must come down, and mile 4 was my fastest of the day at around 7:26. It is a perfect downhill, not too steep and easy to pick up some time without exerting too much extra effort. As I headed down Naito along the waterfront, I had a picture perfect view of the sun rise glistening off the Willamette River, and I started to think that today was going to be my day. By mile 5 I was able to settle into a more steady rhythm and clicked off miles of 7:40, 7:42, 7:43, 7:40 and 7:38.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the course here. This stretch takes runners out Front Street into a largely industrial area with an obstructed view of the river, at times a not to pleasant smell in the air, into a tight turn around and back through the industrial area. With all the character of the Portland neighborhoods, it seems like a strange choice to take the course in this this direction.
The only upside of the turn around was I had the chance to see my brother and give him a big cheer, which gave me a big boost of energy. During mile 10 I got caught behind the 3:35 marathon pace group. The streets here again were pretty crowded and I decided to settle in with the pace group instead of crowd dodging and as long as I was able to keep it under 8:00 I would be in really good shape for a final push to the finish line.
After the split where the full marathoners head off toward the St. John's Bridge and the halfers head back into town, runners were sparse, cheering crowds were even sparser, I felt myself beginning to fade a bit and really had to dig deep but was ultimately able to hold hold pace at 7:46 and 7:48 on miles 12 and 13 and cross the finish line over 2:00 minutes ahead of my goal.
Official Time: 1:42:43
Overall Finishers: 109/2400
Age Group: 79/732
Male: 12/112
No comments:
Post a Comment