i headed up to nashville from atlanta friday morning with 2 missions. 1) run a half marathon and *hopefully beat my friend Erin's most recent half marathon time of 2:29 (sorry E, nothing but love for you, but i do love this friendly competition) and 2) ask my good friend Brian from my childhood to be the minister at my wedding. Since i was not working, i let myself see kyle j off to work and i slept in till about 10:00. I took the crazy dog out for one last little stroll, said my goodbyes to him as i dropped him off at daycare (he did not say bye back... he had playtime on his mind), and headed north west to the city of country music. Once I got to Nashville I checked into the hotel and headed to the expo to get my number. Since I was staying in the "race headquarters" the expo was in the hotel which made getting my race # and checking out the loot super easy.
the expo really wasn't that great. Not a lot of cool stuff to look at and overly crowded. Basically I got my race number, goodie bag, walked the expo, got my tee shirt and headed back to my hotel room. i kinda hung out there all afternoon/evening and escaped to grab dinner and a bagel for race morning. my hotel was only a few blocks from both the start and the finish of the race which made it really nice come 5:45 AM. (why am i runner again?! i hate early mornings!) ...I should have known it was going to be a rough one when I set my alarm for 5:45 and woke up at 4:45 (doh! time change. hi) ... my bagel just did not sit well so as I was walking to the start my stomach wasn't feeling so hot. But I told myself that I was not going to focus on it and just run it out. I could not have asked for better weather, it was gorgeous. The sun came out every now and then and made it toasty but for the most part it was super nice. I woke up Friday with crazy calf craps and thought to myself "did kyle sabotage me... he told me he didn't want me to go" ... and I woke up with the same cramp this morning. I stretched it out and taped it up with KT Tape and hoped it wouldn't give me too much trouble...
The race started & finished at The Country Music Hall of Fame which was cool to see all the country music "stars" on the walkway. JoDee Messina (who I love) kicked off the race with the National Anthem and it was just a cool cool start. I was placed in coral 2 - which freaked me out, but then I realized it was because my finishing time was going to be in the 2 hr and some mark. The one thing that can describe this race is - hilly. ...and they started early. we weren't even to the first mile marker and we were trucking up and hill. There were just a lot of hills - at times I felt like I was traversing a mountain (the Smokey's are in Tennessee aren't they...) and we didn't get to go down the mountain too often. Honestly: the 1st part was a lot of hills and not short ones that you run up and get them over with, but hills that just keep going and going. Mile 3 took us into Centennial Park which reminded me a lot of Piedmont Park here in Atlanta and it was gorgeous and shady. We ran by Vanderbuilt and Belmont University and through some neighborhoods with stunning houses. Somewhere around mile 6 my pink KT Tape started peeling & annoying me so I pulled it off and ran only with half of it and hoped my calf wouldn't start to give me trouble. (seriously: what is in KT Tape to make it work?!) We did a turn around at mile 7 or so and my garmin pretty much freaked out. I hit mile 8 and my watch read 7.34 (or something) and I was like huh -- that's not right. and then somewhere in mile 8 my garmin just said "okay never mind, nap time" and I looked down to see the clock. nice. somewhere in mile 9 it decided to wake back up... so it was hard to watch my pace/miles/etc for the rest of the race. By the time we got to the Veteran's Bridge I was 110% over the hills and really did not have another hill in me - but I stuck it out and trudged up it. we ran next to the Titan's Dome to trek up another bridge and that one killed me (and put the nail in the coffin that I was never running in Nashville again). The Shelby Bridge just kept going up and up and it was killer. Around mile 12 someone yelled "it's all downhill from here" -- and that person was a HUGE liar. As we rounded a corner up to mile 13 we were headed UP again. We hit mile 13, took a left and I could see the finish.... and I just coasted across the finish line. I got my medal from some military man in uniform (who told me, "you didn't even break a sweat did you" -- no sir, I died a few times on those hills), told him thank you and headed to grab water and a banana. I steered clear of the "cookie cafe" .... and walked up another hill back to my hotel. Later Saturday I was reading comments by everyone who ran on the Women's Half Marathon's Facebook page and basically everyone was saying it was a hard course and much harder than the RnR Country Music Marathon and Half Marathon's course -- even a self proclaimed "veteran marathoner" said it was the hardest half she has ever done which makes me feel much much better about my performance (though I am far from a veteran).
i had no idea it was an inaugural race and there were 5,000 or so people registered for it. For it being the 1st time it was held in Nashville they did an AWESOME job. The expo was fully staffed of volunteers so you didn't have to wait for anything (number, goodie bag, or tee) ... the water stops were practically perfectly executed (with the exception of the 2nd one which was kind of a cluster) ... there were so many volunteers in bright yellow on the course cheering us on. Honestly, I would have thought this was like a normal year after year event which means it can only get better with time.
best sign saw on the whole course was going up a hill (who would have thought) there was some guy with a sign that said "my favorite people are women" -- it gave me a good laugh.
I didn't feel as strong as I had hoped I would, but seeing that it was the hilliest thing I have run since San Francisco I felt pretty good. I am sure the pictures look horrendous... but I will post them when they're posted. I didn't like that I didn't know my true finish time thanks to my Garmin crapping out, but a little suspense is okay every now and then right?! ...i did learn that I love Clif Shot Blocks which will not be my new GU. strawberry.yum. And, I ran with my Marine Corps playlist ... and I am gonna need to edit & manage it better. It got kinda dull and unfun a hour or so in.
The race started & finished at The Country Music Hall of Fame which was cool to see all the country music "stars" on the walkway. JoDee Messina (who I love) kicked off the race with the National Anthem and it was just a cool cool start. I was placed in coral 2 - which freaked me out, but then I realized it was because my finishing time was going to be in the 2 hr and some mark. The one thing that can describe this race is - hilly. ...and they started early. we weren't even to the first mile marker and we were trucking up and hill. There were just a lot of hills - at times I felt like I was traversing a mountain (the Smokey's are in Tennessee aren't they...) and we didn't get to go down the mountain too often. Honestly: the 1st part was a lot of hills and not short ones that you run up and get them over with, but hills that just keep going and going. Mile 3 took us into Centennial Park which reminded me a lot of Piedmont Park here in Atlanta and it was gorgeous and shady. We ran by Vanderbuilt and Belmont University and through some neighborhoods with stunning houses. Somewhere around mile 6 my pink KT Tape started peeling & annoying me so I pulled it off and ran only with half of it and hoped my calf wouldn't start to give me trouble. (seriously: what is in KT Tape to make it work?!) We did a turn around at mile 7 or so and my garmin pretty much freaked out. I hit mile 8 and my watch read 7.34 (or something) and I was like huh -- that's not right. and then somewhere in mile 8 my garmin just said "okay never mind, nap time" and I looked down to see the clock. nice. somewhere in mile 9 it decided to wake back up... so it was hard to watch my pace/miles/etc for the rest of the race. By the time we got to the Veteran's Bridge I was 110% over the hills and really did not have another hill in me - but I stuck it out and trudged up it. we ran next to the Titan's Dome to trek up another bridge and that one killed me (and put the nail in the coffin that I was never running in Nashville again). The Shelby Bridge just kept going up and up and it was killer. Around mile 12 someone yelled "it's all downhill from here" -- and that person was a HUGE liar. As we rounded a corner up to mile 13 we were headed UP again. We hit mile 13, took a left and I could see the finish.... and I just coasted across the finish line. I got my medal from some military man in uniform (who told me, "you didn't even break a sweat did you" -- no sir, I died a few times on those hills), told him thank you and headed to grab water and a banana. I steered clear of the "cookie cafe" .... and walked up another hill back to my hotel. Later Saturday I was reading comments by everyone who ran on the Women's Half Marathon's Facebook page and basically everyone was saying it was a hard course and much harder than the RnR Country Music Marathon and Half Marathon's course -- even a self proclaimed "veteran marathoner" said it was the hardest half she has ever done which makes me feel much much better about my performance (though I am far from a veteran).
i had no idea it was an inaugural race and there were 5,000 or so people registered for it. For it being the 1st time it was held in Nashville they did an AWESOME job. The expo was fully staffed of volunteers so you didn't have to wait for anything (number, goodie bag, or tee) ... the water stops were practically perfectly executed (with the exception of the 2nd one which was kind of a cluster) ... there were so many volunteers in bright yellow on the course cheering us on. Honestly, I would have thought this was like a normal year after year event which means it can only get better with time.
best sign saw on the whole course was going up a hill (who would have thought) there was some guy with a sign that said "my favorite people are women" -- it gave me a good laugh.
I didn't feel as strong as I had hoped I would, but seeing that it was the hilliest thing I have run since San Francisco I felt pretty good. I am sure the pictures look horrendous... but I will post them when they're posted. I didn't like that I didn't know my true finish time thanks to my Garmin crapping out, but a little suspense is okay every now and then right?! ...i did learn that I love Clif Shot Blocks which will not be my new GU. strawberry.yum. And, I ran with my Marine Corps playlist ... and I am gonna need to edit & manage it better. It got kinda dull and unfun a hour or so in.
finish time: 2:44:07 --yikes. not happy about that at all. that is 9 minutes slower than my PR. grr. thanks hills.
average pace: 12:39 -- which is under the 14:00 pace for MCM and I am sure MCM is not that hilly.
my garmin only tracked 12.49 miles of the 13.1, but from that i beat my mcm competition by: 1.46 miles
Post race, I took a 20 minute ice bath and then headed back to Atlanta (bad idea - my legs were sore and I was so tired) to watch the Alabama/Arkansas game. My heart took too much on Saturday. Half Marathon and a too stressful football game. It's amazing I am still alive.
Oh and I didn't get to ask my friend to be my officiant. He ended up going camping Friday and having to take his dog to the vet. I do have 545 days till I am hitched so I have some time.
race starts at 7:00 AM. I am in coral 2. I figure I will be done by 9:30 AM - 9:40 at the latest. Gotta be back on the road to Atlanta by 10:30... Need to be back in Atlanta by 3:30 PM for the Alabama/Arkansas game. I was kinda excited to see a 12pm checkout time for my hotel, it was shattered when i saw the 2:30 pm (CT) kickoff for the game. Oh Alabama Football how you rule my life in the fall. depending on my true finish time and the ice situation at the hotel, i may get in a 15 minute ice bath... but that's me being optimistic.
