Half Marathon, Snow in Corvallis, How to start our own race

I completed another half marathon this weekend, hooray!  A few days leading up to the race, the event website noted the forecast for the race as I shared previously.  The forecaster was dead on!  We saw the snow on the ground the night before, and in the morning I tested my footing as I went to warm up the car.  Yip, there was ice under the snow, so I fear for a very slippery race.  As traveled to Turner for the race, the weather cleared up outside of Albany.  Unfortunately as we entered Turner the snow was blanketing the streets.  Runners in the gym were all hoping the snow would melt off before the 9AM start.  Close to race time the snow started to fall again!  When the cattle bells rang, big flakes of snow floated across the starting shoot.   Fortunately the roads were not too terrible, patches of ice and slush, and patches of bare wet pavement.  I set my watch to alert me when my pace was outside the range of 6:54/mi and 6:34/m. I started easy ensure I could get good traction, and once I was more comfortable I settling into a pace of about 6:54/mi.  My watch buzzed every few seconds telling my to "speed up!", until I finally got my pace within range.  The air was very cool with blasts of 8-10mph winds every once in a while, but after about 2 miles my body was heated up  to the point that I didn't notice the cold too much.  I picked off quite a few runners in the beginning, and settled behind a small group of runners that were about twenty yards head.  As the runners ahead of me passed the turnaround, I counted them to determine were I was placing.  I was in 31st or 32nd place out of ~880 runners!  That was motivation for me to keep pushing, and keep my pace within range. At the turn-around we headed into the wind gusts. This slowed me down enough for my pace to fall below 6:54, and my watch told me to speed up!  My body was telling me to slow down, take a break,  take it easy, or even to stop and walk.  My brain was telling me to keep pushing, you are past half way, and this is nothing compared to battles others are facing.  It is hard to put into words of the actual movitating thoughts, but that is the best way I can put it. I notice I had a picked up a drafter at about mile 5 or 6, and he drafted behind me for a couple miles.  He passed me on a straight stretched a mile or so after the turnaround. I don't like being passed, and in my younger years I would have tried to keep pace with him so I could pass him back.  Today I just let him go and continued to run my race.  I noticed another runner about 100m heading of me that I was closing on, but I just continued to run my pace.  As I started to pace him he started speeding up, but he couldn't keep the pace and would slow down, and then speed up as I started moving past him again.  This lasted about a 200m, and then I just had to stride out to pick up my pace a bit because he was throwing off my pace.  That was at about mile 11. Two miles to go.  My abs were tighening a bit, legs were a little heavy, and my breathing was I bit labored.  Two miles is nothing I told myself, and thought about when or if I was going to start my kick.  The one mile mark?  Half mile? Finish chute? As I came through a series of s-curves, I looked back briefly to see if there was anyone close to me.  The guy that I passed was about 200 to 300m behind me, and the guy that passed me was about 300 - 400m ahead of me.   Since I had no feasiable target, and no immediate threats I decided to start picking up my pace a touch with about one mile before the finish.  With about a quarter of a mile to go I shifted into fourth gear, striding out, and picking up the tempo.  Going into the last turn, a volunteer was waving me in, yelling something, but I had my earphones in so not exactly sure what he was saying - I am sure something like, "Your almost there, good job, keep it up!"  I was now in fifth gear, didn't have the RPM's for sixth ;-) Breathing was tough, heart rate threw the roof, and legs feeling like cement, I kept pumping through the finish line!  Clicked stop on the watch, and looked for my family. My wife and kids congradulated me, and I just wanted water.  I was really driven to hit 1:30, so I didn't stop at the water stations.  I was a little nauseated from the tough race.  Jackson went to the car to get my gatorade, and then we went to the post race area to get some food.   I chatted with some racers, got some food, and left.  Later I found online that I was 31 of  396 runners, and 9th of 44 in my age group!  Pretty good I guess.   "31   253 Curtis Garrett          44 M   9/41   M4044  Corvallis     OR 3    0:07 1:31:25  6:59 1:31:32  7:00" Christina and I met with our neighbor the sponsor a 5k run about how to create our own run to raise funds for Christina's treatment, and to raise awareness of the benefits of alternative treatment modalities.  Amy gave us some resources to help us get started, and offered her assistance when or if we decided to create our own race.  Very exciting stuff!   My next race is in April, the Corvallis Half Marathon.  I have created a new workout plan that will start on the 25th, until then I will just do a few easy runs.   See you next time!

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