BEST. RACE. EVER!!!

Do you notice a trend appearing in this blog?  I’m sorry, I can’t help it if awesome stuff inspires my posts. And pardon my superfluity, but all sorts of exciting competitions have been occurring in the past few weeks and things have really been turning up LIZ.  I mean not to brag, but first our boy wins the presidency, and then I take 18 MINUTES OFF MY PERSONAL RECORD for the half marathon.  What’s next? With this luck maybe I’ll win the lottery or maybe Suzie will be asked to be on the cover of Cat Fancy. WHO KNOWS in this crazy world?!  Like the little silver race charm that Trish gave me says, “anything is possible.”  

Gayle, Al, Trish and I went down to the Monterey peninsula this weekend for the Big Sur Half.  Saturday was pouring rain and nasty, but we all held close to the dear words of the meteorologists for race day, who all predicted dry weather.  To make up for missing the usual TNT-style pasta party in a giant convention center with eighty thousand of our closest friends, we went over to Trish & Al’s room at Embassy Suites for happy hour and our own kind of feast.

 

No, I didn't actually drink the night before a race...my friends are just crazy and have better digestive systems

 

Carbo-Loading, Chez Hart

 

my home-made contribution: sweet potato fries! mmm

 

Gayle and I got to bed at a reasonable hour, but when the alarm went off at 4:45AM the first thing she said to me was, “is that the wind I hear?”  That combined with the uncertainty about whether to wear a long-sleeve or ditch it in the gear check, and fact that I was freaking out about being poop-shy that morning (thanks Perrisa for that term), did not make for a very confident start.  

But when gun goes off, it’s time to run, and all the mental garbage has to be left behind at the starting line.  No turning back!  Here’s the course:

 

course map

You can’t really tell from this tiny picture (plenty more of those to come…), but we started near Fisherman’s Wharf, ran down the coast toward Pacific Grove not quite to where 17-mile Drive starts (if we did run through there, would they charge us each $9.25??), turned around and came back to finish at the old Custom House.  

Despite an iffy morning, when I started moving I felt good, and that feeling stayed with me for most of the race.  There were some droplets of rain right at the beginning and I feared reliving the horrible nightmare of the Monsoon at Waikiki that defined miles 1-3 of my marathon in Honolulu last year, but luckily that faded quickly. 

There was nothing too dramatic about this course, except for the fact that it was coined as a “flat” race, but it was most definitely NOT flat.  Good thing we love hills — thanks to Coach Joe for that.  Trish and I ran the whole thing together, and carried an 11:42 pace average.  The cool thing was that we were aiming for a sub-12 pace, and every time we passed a mile marker we were at least 2 minutes under what would have been a 12-min/mile pace, nearly to the second.  (E.g. at mile 3 we were at 34, not 36 min; at mile 5 we were at 58, not 60 min). Consistent, predictable running, which sounds really mind-numbingly boring to non-runners, is actually really thrilling for those of us who care.  It shows that we can pace well, and that’s what it’s all about for long distances.  

When things temporarily sucked, I reminded Trish and myself how beautiful the scenery was.  My right middle toe cramped pretty bad from mile 8 onwards, and my right ankle was being stupid for the first time and hurting for the last several miles, but this pristine landscape mitigated the pain to some degree.  The added bonus of endorphins help spice things up visually, but even these pretty pictures don’t do the experience justice (but thanks nonetheless to Trish for capturing these post-race!):  

 

 

Monterey coastline

 

near mile 5 or so

 

at one point, Trish hallucinated that she saw a whale, but I like to pretend it was really there

 

part of the "flat" course

 

I have mixed feelings about the fact that more often than not a snapshot of a road in CA will also contain a Prius...so smart, yet so ugly

 

So the rest of these pictures are taken from the official MarathonFoto site, and we’re technically supposed to be buying these as full-size shots…which explains why they are tiny, and you have to squint to know it’s really me.  

         

         

  

this one’s actually my favorite, because I actually look like I’m running for once. and I look like a bad ass! wooo! push it!     

That one where I’m a hard-core runner was taken right at the finish, the 0.1 of the 13.1 where I’m sprinting my guts out.  The guy on the loudspeaker actually said, “and here comes number 4975, tearing it up at the end!”  That was pretty darn exciting.  I bet I have a big smile on my face and I don’t look as much of a retard as I did at Nike in the finish line photos at this race (still waiting for those to be posted…will put them here when they are). 

But the fact that I could surge at the end like that makes me feel like I’ve been cheating myself.  My brain is slowing me down, apparently, because when I shut if off and just go, I can push it and go faster than I thought I could.  Another example: the fact that I could take nearly 20 minutes off my best half time ever, just because I had someone pacing me.  Trish and I barely did not break 2:30 (official time for me was 2:33:21) which drives me nuts, because I could have eliminated 3 and a half minutes somewhere in there.  Oh well, guess I just have to do another one to break 2:30! 

Took today off and played around in Monterey, but gotta go back to work tomorrow.  Glad I had the extra day to recuperate.  Half marathons are the very best distance because you can do one and not be completely dead for the next week.  Yesterday I got to be a tourist after the race, and I wasn’t even that tired.  Our hotel, Carmel Mission Inn, was fabulous and I highly recommend it.  And of course, I am so grateful to my parents and our friends Doug & Theresa for coming down to cheer me on in the chilly, wet weather — you guys are the best!! Now, it’s time to go roll out my calves and hams on the foam roller…and stuff my face, cuz I CAN now! yippeee!