Yesterday I ran in the Run the Line Half Marathon in Texarkana, Texas. This race provided me with "a unique opportunity to run in one race in two states"; Arkansas and Texas. Having already run in a southern Texas half marathon last week, and running in another half marathon this week in north Texas is kind of neat, geographically speaking. Maybe I need to look at finding half marathon races in east and west Texas!!
As usual, I did not get much sleep. I went to bed around midnight and woke up at 2:45 a.m. Saturday morning. Having done an inventory of the running gear the night before (yes, I did not forget my small Band-Aides) I was ready to go.
I arrived in Texarkana around 6:50 a.m. I walked to the registration/packet pickup, located in the Bi-State Judicial Building.
It's about a block away from where I parked, and on the same block as the starting line.
My goodie bag contained:
- racing bib
- timing chip
- the usual local area races advertisement
- fillers from local businesses (breath mints, cups, key chains, clip, etc)
- coupons from Hooters
- McDonalds water bottle
- Run the Line running hat
- Run the Line long grey sleeve shirt (labeled as UltraBlend: preshrunk, 50% cotton and 50% polyester blend)
As there is rain in the forecast, I put on the hat provided in the race goodie bag. Since the temperature is holding around the low 50's no windbreaker. My running clothes consist of a long sleeve tech shirt, with my Lupus Runners short sleeve tech shirt on top, and running shorts for the race.
For this race, my goals are:
- continue running without any intake of "fuel" supplements (pre, during and post race), except for the liquids that are provided on the course
- find out how many miles I could hold a "sub 8 minute per mile" pace
The two races that I have run this year (the Fort Worth Runners Club Einstein 10k and the Surfside Beach Half Marathon) I have kept the first goal. The second goal for the first race (10k), I kept the "sub 8 minute per mile" pace for miles 1 and 2, and 6. The remaining miles for the 10k were run under 8:27 minunte per mile.
Since I did not run in the Lake Benbrook Half Marathon (scheduled as my first half of the year) I took it easy in the Surfside Beach half Marathon. My second goal for that race was to do as many sub 8 and 9 minute miles as possible. Miles 1 and 3 were sub 8 minute per mile. Miles 2, 4-10, and 12-13 were sub 9-8 minute miles. Mile 11 was the only one in the 9 minute range.
At around 7:40 I head back into the registration/packet pickup building. I do my usual stretching and then head out to the starting line. I jog for about 5 minutes ahead of the starting line, away from the runners.
After a couple of announcements (we will encounter water on the course due to previous rains, etc.) and one of the runners singing the national anthem, the race starts with loud pyrotechnic sounds (without the fireworks). I cross the timing mats in the middle of the pack. The first couple of miles are uneventful, except for running through the mouth of big dragon!! Ok, it was an inflated dragon, but its mouth was as wide as the asphalt trail we were running on. That was pretty cool. I did not understand why a person was holding down the right side of the dragon with a rope. Maybe keeping the dragon's mouth from dropping on us?? Later on (I forgot what mile marker it was on) we ran into the mouth of a tiger. This was pretty cool to me as he looked exactly like our high school mascot.
The course for the race was mostly in the park's 10 foot wide asphalt trails and through small neighborhoods. Running through the park we encounter those low lying areas on the trail covered with water still seeping from water logged ground. These had very little effect as they was no more than a quarter to half an inch of standing water. The major streets and intersections with traffic were conned off and manned by the local police department and a volunteer. Not a large amount of spectators in one place, but it seemed like there we volunteers and spectators everywhere on the course. There was no way one anyone would get lost on this course. Once past mile marker 3 or 4, I began to see familiar volunteer faces. It seems some had multiple duties on various parts of the course. You could not miss the race volunteers and staff; they had on bright fluorescent green shirts. They had "I helped Run the Line" printed on the front the shirts.
At mile marker 7 a runner next to me states "That looks so tempting." I asked "What is?" He said, as he pointed down to our left, "That way is mile 11". I said "Ooh. Very tempting indeed", as we kept on. At this point I had run all the 7 miles between 7:18 and 7:58 minute per mile pace. I would continue the under 8 minute pace into the 8th mile with another 7:58 minute per mile. After this point the combination of mild inclines (not even classified as hills in my book) and the pace starts take a toll on me.
On mile 9 (even with a drink break) and 10 I ran those at 8:15 and 8:47 respectively. Not what I wanted, but I did not want to burn out. Several of the drink stations had either PowerAde and water or Gaterade and water. Two of the stations even had half sliced bananas and orange slices. They were all staffed with at least 3 volunteers and was always handed the drinks.
Speaking of drinking breaks; I took my usual breaks at or after the 3rd, 6th, and 9th mile markers. I usually don't take another until after the finish of the race, but in this race I took another at the 12th mile. I figure the early pace warranted the extra break. Another thing that I did was take two walking breaks. I usually "run" through the drinking breaks. In fact a photographer caught me walking and stated that he took a picture of me while I was taking one of my walking. I told him that I understood, and that I was ok with it, considering what I had accomplished up to this point of the race.
Miles 11-13 were in the 9 minute range. Ugly but, I'm not complaining. Past the 13th mile marker I increase my pace from 7.37 to 8.8 miles per hour sprint as I hit the finish line. Volunteers hover over me as one places my finisher medal over my head (not handed to me) another hands me an aluminum blanket or heat shield, while another hands me a red color/flavor PowerAde. Nice. How did they know my favorite flavor? They had enough volunteers do this for everyone. Nice personal touch!!
It ain't over until she signs!!
I stay near the finish line walking around and cheering the other finishers.
I had not notice that the announcer was calling out finisher's numbers, names and other tid-bits of info as we were running towards the finish line. I very much like this "personal touch". It makes me feel more than a participant; I'm someone, from some where. Either I'm running my first race at this distance, or my 100th, I'm a local runner, or I just flew in from Maryland (this individual placed second in his age group), I'm a local Dr., or I'm the guy who designed all the mile markers. FYI, this only works in small to middle size races, but even in large races, I think the effort is worth it.
After 15 minutes of cooling down I start to feel the cold through drenched clothing. The aluminum "blanket" is not warming me up enough. I walk back to the truck, 2-3 blocks away from the finish line. I switch out wet tech shirts with a dry, long sleeve shirt. I also put on my windbreaker set and grab my camera as I saw a couple of things that a wanted to photograph on the way back to the finish line (I'll post these separately). I took several pictures on the way back to the finish line.
I head into the Hopkins Icehouse where the awards ceremonies are held.
We were provided with free food consisting hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken spaghetti.
There were 5 or more $100 Dillard's gift certificate door prizes given through out the awards ceremonies. As I go outside (around 12:30) to head back home, I finally notice the preliminary race results taped to the windows of the Hopkins Icehouse.
It looks like I ran my 3rd fastest time for the half marathon distance:
11/22/09 - 1:45:14 - 8:02 - Mote In Motion Half
09/20/09 - 1:48:55 - 8:19 - Philadelphia Distance Run
02/21/10 - 1:49:27 - 8:21 - Run the Line
02/13/10 - 1:50:42 - 8:27 - Surfside Beach
09/27/09 - 1:51:33 - 8:31 - Heels & Hills & Him
08/23/09 - 1:56:38 - 8:54 - Hottest Half
I did not pay attention to a lot of things during the run as I was making sure I was not distracted. Truthfully, I remember very little about the course, except for what was mentioned above. Compared to last weeks race this was all business. At last week's race I enjoyed the venue and the run at Surfside Beach. In this race I really wanted to see what I could do.
In this race I've found out that I can keep my pace to less than 8 minute per mile through mile 9. So I need to continue to work on miles 10-13. I think the fuel supplements would take care of that. Resting the two days before the race (that means sleeping at least more than 5 hours) would help me even more.
My preliminary results are:
Chip Time: 1:49:27.4 (8:21 minute per mile pace)
Gun Time: 1:49:35.8 (8:22 minute per mile pace)
Age Group: 5th out of 22
Gender Group: 43rd out of 119
Overall: 60th out of 232
Results: overall and age group
I ran the 13.1 miles in 1 hour 49 minutes and 27 seconds at 8:21 minute per mile pace, according to my phone's GPS application (Nokia's Sports Tracker).
The weather was cloudy, humidity 77%, wind from the SSE at 10.4 mph.
The temperature was around 53 degrees.
Here are my mile splits (phone GPS and Nokia's Sports Tracker application):
01. 7:30.97, 0:07:30.97, 1 mi 7:31 / mi.
02. 7:18.69, 0:14:49.66, 1 mi 7:19 / mi. - ran through a "dragon's mouth"
03. 7:21.69, 0:22:11.36, 1 mi 7:22 / mi.
04. 7:54.69, 0:30:06.60, 1 mi 7:55 / mi. - drink station
05. 7:25.85, 0:37:31.92, 1 mi 7:26 / mi.
06. 7:58.88, 0:45:30.80, 1 mi 7:59 / mi. - drink station
07. 7:35.80, 0:53:06.61, 1 mi 7:36 / mi.
08. 7:58.22, 1:01:04.82, 1 mi 7:58 / mi.
09. 8:15.67, 1:09:20.50, 1 mi 8:16 / mi. - drink station
10. 8:47.79, 1:18:08.30, 1 mi 8:48 / mi. - walked
11. 9:20.00, 1:27:28.30, 1 mi 9:20 / mi. - walked
12. 9:12.16, 1:36:40.47, 1 mi 9:12 / mi. - drink station
13. 9:28.14, 1:46:08.61, 1 mi 9:28 / mi.
14. 4:30.50, 1:50:38.67, 0.5 mi 8:58 / mi.
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