Angills Can Fly

Back at it again, this was my first of many 1/2 marathons. Preperation was slightly skewed by picking up the Lake Geneva Triathlon at the last minute 3 weeks before this race, however the overall training of the entire season made this race possible I think. One thing is for sure, it is alot easier to make sure you have everything you need for a running race than a triathlon; Shoes and socks… check, race belt and number… check, hat and sunglasses… check okay I’m good to go. The night before the race Jess and I broke the mold of pasta before the race and had chinese food for dinner. I ate some general tso chicken and some fried wontons and she had some spicy beef soup. I laid around in the hotel all night just relaxing, sat in the jacuzzi for about 30 mins and also had 1 beer as I just recently read in a runner’s world article that the chromium helps the body to process carbs and a good source of 60 micrograms of chromium. I woke up at 4:45 and did some stretching, drank a cup of coffee followed by a cytomax and some water. I mixed up a cytomax to drink while I walked a little over a mile to the starting line.
     Originally this race was scheduled after talking to my friend ”Holdie” about upcoming races back in December of 07′ in my parents kitchen. He is a long time marathon runner and has run this race many times with many friends, in addition my family had never seen me race so it was a perfect match. A few months before the race Holdie busted his knee up pretty badly on a trampoline which resulted in many surgeries and late night runs to the emergency room for infections… to the effect of doctors telling him he may never walk normally again. So I decided to dedicate my first 1/2 half marathon to his getting better and making a come back to the running world. I Had this shirt made for my memory and his, the evening after the race we had a small gathering at my parents house and had a few drinks etc. and he got to see it.
     So I started in coral 14, walked for about 10 minutes before I got to the starting line, did my best just to not step on people for the first few miles. The run was beautiful, about 65 degrees, and mostly flat. I took a Honey Stinger gel at 30 mins, and another at 1 hour. I took water at all but one stop, and I picked up 2 gels at mile 10 but only used 1 of them. I felt great the whole race up until the last 2 miles my legs really started to hurt. I can only imagine this was because I picked up that last minute triathalon and didn’t do enough 10+ mile runs. I kept an eye on my Garmin for most of the race and stayed comfortable, listening to the people around me talk about various things. Many of them wearing ipods which I usually do for training so I have to remember that when bikes and swims aren’t involved an ipod is alright to have. About mile 11.5 I slowed down significantly but when I past mile 13 with all the spectators cheering and knowing it was the end I cranked it up to about a 7 min pace across the line. I was really hoping I would beat Mike’s Disney 1/2 marathon from Labor day (1:57) but I have plenty of time… I “will” catch you Mike

5k: 32:08 10k: 1:04 10 Mile: 1:46 Finish: 2:20

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 27th, 2008 at 6:56 amand is filed under Races. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.