Tuesday, April 1, 2008

ING Half-Marathon: Race Report

Let's start with the weather since it played such a huge part in last years race when I ran (suffered through) the marathon. Last year, temperatures got into the 80's. It was just a flukey weather day! All I wanted this year was cooler temperatures for my first race of 2008. AND BOY, DID I GET IT!!!
Saturday arrived and it was another warm day but forecast for Sunday was much cooler and some rain. Well, it rained throughout the night and into the wee hours of Sunday morning. I was not at all opposed to possibly having to run in the rain, just please weather gods/goddesses, NO WIND. Please. I hate running in wind.

As soon as I woke up and did my morning routine of coffee and powerbar...i knew I would have a good day. it's just a feeling i get. This is in direct contrast to last year when i woke up and i did not have this feeling at all. And i had a crappy race that day.
Anyways...my friend who was not running agreed to pick me up at 6am and come with me for support. WHAT A GAL!! The temperatures were about 40 degrees with a little wind. We arrived at the start and I somehow found my starting area. It was pretty chaotic, actually....a bit of a congested area with no real clear signs or anything. The start was smack in front of Centennial Olympic Park.
Diana DiGarmo who won American Idol a while ago (she is a local girl) sang the national anthem, which was pretty neat. I love those moments. The singing of the anthem when all else is quiet and everyone is within themselves with their own thoughts. I love watching people's faces during these moments.
Soon enough, at the stroke of 7am!! the race began. I wore nylon adidas pants and jacket and a cap. I did not have gloves. I figured i could toss my pants if i got to hot, but that moment never came. Actually, it even felt much colder toward the end around mile 11. I started out fast with mile 1 about 8:41 and I knew i had to sloooow down. Little by little I did and was on a good pace for current level of training. This was my longest run since JFK last November. I took 2 gels and a bunch of water. I got a little tired around mile 9-11 miles, but I just remained focused. The last 1.5 miles was pretty rough actually...a long, drawn out hilly area by Georgia Tech and then a finish line that seemed very elusive...a lot of zig zags through the park..you couldn't even really sprint at the end because of this layout..but I wasn't gonna be sprinting anyway. :)
All in all, I am satisfied with the race and result. I finished in line with my expectations.

Next up is a TRAIL HALF-MARATHON in about 3 weeks. Yes!!

2 comments:

Josh said...

Congratulations! Sounds like you ran a great race and met your goals. Great start to the 2008 racing season!

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