Athens Half Marathon, October 23, 2011

OK. I decided to look at this as an opportunity. It's not so much that I totally slacked off the last three weeks for no reason; I was tapering. So there.

I wore shorts, a red shirt (in honor of UGA!), my black Zensah calf sleeves, black gloves, and black Adidas shorts. At the last minute I threw on a light windbreaker. I really didn't feel like being cold.

I joined a group of runners (or maybe zombies, it was dark), and walked to the start. We passed a tent for Occupy Athens- about two people in there. I tried to line up with a pace group- unfortunately, some of the pacers didn't show up, including the 1:50 guy. I had been hoping to go out with the 1:50 group. The race organizer asked the group around me if we wanted to carry the sign- we all declined. If I'd had more time to think, I might have volunteered to carry one of the signs for the slower people, but no way I was committing to 1:50!

A few days before the race, the organizers posted a message on facebook asking for someone to sing the National Anthem. To my surprise, a runner volunteered. The runner ended up doing a great job. I thought that was so cool- jump up there, sing the Anthem, hand off the mike, and start your Garmin...

The plan was to start slowly because I'd done absolutely zero speedwork. Yeah, the plan didn't entirely work.

Mile 1: 8:47

Kill me. I forgot my open finger gloves that convert to mittens, so I bought some cheap gloves. I can't use the screen on my iPhone, but these people behind me will run me over if I try to balance my phone and water bottle while taking off a glove. I finally pull over to a sidewalk. Stupid.

Mile 2: 8:03

I think it was here that we ran around the stadium. I'm not a football fan and don't feel strongly about UGA, but the stadium was cool.

Mile 3: 7:57

Uh, way downhill. This is the mile where I realized the hill was so steep my arm flailed out to catch my balance. By all means, blaze down it, cause I won't need to save any energy to get back up later. I am my own worst enemy.

Mile 4: 8:33

Was it around here that I saw a man sitting in a lawnchair in a full tuxedo with a glass of wine or was I already hallucinating?

Mile 5: 8:56
Mile 6: 8:27

Entering a dark, dark place. "Why am I doing this?" "How am I going to run a full in three weeks?!" I high five a little kid and feel so much better. (At the time I thought the kid brought up my spirits, and she probably helped, but looking back at the elevation chart, I'd been going uphill awhile.)

Mile 7: 8:35
Mile 8: 8:34
Mile 9: 8:44
Mile 10: 8:24
Mile 11: 8:27

Somewhere in that long stretch we entered the world's greatest neighborhood. Signs, cheering, banners- the works. One yard had at least 50 balloons filled with helium- awesome. It was almost to the level of the Gate River Run, but this was only it's second year. Cool people! I think a lot of them might have been drinking...

Mile 12: 8:23

One of the volunteers at a water stop yells something like "you need to get prepared for the last hill, pull yourselves together now and get ready." Far cry from the usual, "looking good" or the ubiquitous "you're almost there" lie. I hurried down a hill but tried to heed his warning and conserve some energy. (Turns out he was a coach).

Mile 13: 9:55

Really, Athens? What was that? Volunteer did not lie. There was a horrible hill at the end. Keep in mind that none of this course was flat, but that end was miserable. My knee was a bit achy and I was running as fast as people walking next to me, so I walked a bit. Oh, the horror. Pushed it up to a run for the finish.

Chip time: 1:53:16

AG: 15/126

I wandered back to the room and changed clothes. The race t-shirt was sort of ok, but not great. Good thing I'm not still hung up on bling, cause the medal left a lot to be desired.

Reflections:

I went into this race with unrealistic expectations. I was hoping to break 1:50, but the hills just never ended (so glad I didn't carry the 1:50 pace flag!) I tried to run cautiously (with the exception of the wildly flailing hill) out of fear of getting hurt right before my full. Having run absolutely no fast paces before the race, I was pleased I could maintain roughly an 8:30 the whole way.

I don't know if I could have run faster or not, which ruined any predictions for a relatively flat full... It was a fun race, but not one I need to do again- did I mention Athens is really, really far away? And in the future, I'd probably be better off running my last 20 miler three weeks from my goal marathon rather than a half.

Oh, and I hated wearing the windbreaker. I'll just be cold from now on.