I set out to run this race because a few friends were coming up and thought it would be fun to meet up with them (it was, despite everything else). I hadn't done this one before. Mostly because it seems like a ton of people and I tend to shy away from that when I can. The two biggest races I've run are these two (Capital City Half Marathon and the Columbus Marathon). This one had 14,500 entries according to the race director. I think Columbus Marathon has a similarly large number.
As expected, there are corrals. I had originally had this sub 2 hour plan in my head but decided to forego that because it was just not my time. I had corral C but settled back into E to run with my friend who had put a more realistic finishing time as his goal. After waiting for all the faster corrals to go, it was finally our turn. We were about 18 minutes behind the clock. Things went well for a while. I was feeling good, pace was speeding up and I was cautious to not go below 9:20. The air became more humid and by mile 3 a steady rain started to come down. I could tolerate it for a while. I told my friend if it became a full on downpour, I would probably duck into an overhang and wait a few minutes to see if it passed. I didn't do that at this point as it wasn't bad enough to warrant that. The first rainy portion ended up stopping after a mile or two maybe. At that point I was soaked but shoes were remaining relatively dry, as I was able to duct tape them thanks to a friend having some duct tape I could use.
After a while, I could feel my sinuses getting clogged up again and that familiar not being able to breathe well due to humidity. Unlike other runners who seem to love running in rain, I just get more congested and have to take a million slow down/blow my nose breaks. I started to need water, but luckily there were plenty of stations. Pace started to slow down. I told my friend to go ahead after mile 8 ish. I didn't want to continue to hold him back. Seemed like he was getting a second wind when I was starting to struggle. It was ok. I knew I would finish, just not with my best time. I think when you have a few races you struggle with, it helps you understand that there is no predicting these things. You just show up, give it an effort and however it turns out. I was on the struggle bus for a few miles, and then started to feel better. Sinuses started to clear some and I felt maybe I could manage until the end.
As soon as that thought crossed my mind I saw a flash of lightning. No, we're not going to finish this. I had mixed feelings. Somewhat glad, due to the struggles I had earlier. Really did want to complete what I set out to do, in another way. But I wasn't sure what it meant that there was lightning. Probably not good things to come ahead. I saw a police officer and asked "are we going to finish?" He said, "course is being diverted" and gave me the next direction/turn. So we cut off about 9 miles in. Turned up the final street and I finished at 9.34 miles, almost a 15k.
After that things changed quickly. I was able to get my medal and some food (yogurt, snack bar, water) but turned out that since a lightning storm and torrential rains were on the way we couldn't get our gear checked bags which were in the tents with metal poles and the finishers party (free pizza, beer, sparkling wine, margarita) was also cancelled. A lot of disappointment about that, but what can you do...
I did eventually get my gear checked bag once the storm had settled down. The main priority was getting everyone to a safe area while the storm passed. Ended up getting some food/drink with my friends later at their hotel, and laughing (kind of) about the experience.
The next day I decided to go back out there and complete the last miles I missed. I ended up running a total of 14.22 miles because I had to park somewhere kind of weird to complete the rest of the course. But the day after was sunny and warm (although of course it ended up raining later that day).
So, all's well that ends well, right?
Might do this one again. I feel like I should give it another shot. Might do the 5k next year though because I just want to run something shorter as I have a spring marathon planned in 2018.
After that, it just continued raining through the following Saturday. Got in some various paced runs (one was a heart rate zone 2 attempt, one faster, one average pace). Keeping my heart rate in zone 2 seemed to be occurring at a faster pace, which shows some improvement. 11:05-11:10 for zone 2 opposed to what it was a few months ago (had to run about a 12:00 pace for that hr zone). Maybe something's happening there.
Don't really know anymore what my goals are. Thinking I'll still work on improving speed and if something comes along where I have a chance to improve my half time, possibly I'll go for it. I've considered just doing it on my own and not at an actual race to relieve anxiety. I do need to stop putting so much pressure on myself so this has been a good few weeks/month to relax and let things turn out as they do.
