Ok, so officially this was the Lewis and Clark 1/2 Marathon and Full Marathon, but I'm renaming it the Run Through Hurricane (technically just a Tropical Depression) Ike 10.1ish. In the words of Three Dog Night - "This was the craziest party there ever could be. Don't turn on the lights, 'cause I don't want to see!"
Got up at 4:30am for a 6:45am start. Headed out the door into a light rain at 5:15am. Hurricane Ike seemed to be just sending out a warning that he would be coming to the party soon enough. They asked that the runners be in the parking area by 5:45am and I would have been, honest, but about a mile from the parking area traffic slammed to a hault on the expressway and the rain was beating down cats and dogs. It took me another hour and fifteen minutes to get to the parking area from here, and the grass gutter medians were complete streams of water. When I got to my parking spot it was already after 7am. I assumed that the race would be delayed as there were hundreds and hundreds of cars behind me still trying to get in. I skipped the pre-race antics and changed out of my warm-up gear into my race gear in the car before getting out and pulled a garbage bag over my head. I took a look around and made a guess (correct too!) as to where the start might be. I jogged down the road, passing a few race officials who told me I was going the right direction. Only a few runners were doing the same however, and about 1/2 a mile down the road I spotted 2 wires over the roadway with a man standing next to them. I paused, confused, and asked, is this the start? Yep, this is the start, go when you're ready. Really? Hmm. Oh well. My shoes were soaked and squishing already, I dumped the garbage bag and got my watch ready. Another runner pulled up next to me and said, ready? Let's go I said. And we were off in the first annual Run Through Ike! 50 meters down the line we introduced ourselves and discovered we were both going for sub 1:30. Perfect! So off we went through nearly empty streets pacing a few joggers who must have started just before us. The rain was pouring down and visibility was extremely limited due to the 30+ mile an hour winds.
Conditions were such that I couldn't really see any race surroundings and with my adrenaline racing due to being late, I didn't have much of an idea of my pace, but it didn't feel too off. My first mile marker came at mile 2. 12:52! Ugh! Too fast, 6:26s! At this point my race newly found race partner and I made a turn into the wind, which began pelting our faces. Running at this point required keeping at least 1 eye closed, and alternating back and forth between eyes. I made an intentional adjustment to slow down the pace a bit and decided that I would just call this a training run in horrific conditions.
My next mile marker (at least that I saw, it was difficult with in the face, trying to avoid deep puddles and weaving in and out of racers we were beginning to catch) was mile 5. This entire 3 mile section was totally into the wind-driven rain and there was excessive weaving required as we made our way through the pack. I had to pee and thought about stopping a couple times off to the side to let it fly, but kept on going. I hit this 3 mile section in 21:59 (7:20s). Slow, but given conditions and circumstances, I was ok with it, as I had already determined this was just a fast training run.
I was never to see another mile marker until the finish, but had a general idea where I was based on water stations, which I didn't use. After mile 5 I began to pick up the pace somewhat due to my slow 3 mile split. Somewhere around mile 6 we made a turn and the wind-driven rain was coming across us instead of straight into us. I lost my racing partner during this mile and was beginning to pick off runners in droves (honestly I would guess I was passing 50 runners a minute). Somewhere around what I think was mile 8 the wind stopped and it was just a torrential downpour. I could feel my pace picking up as a result, and passing so many runners had an empowering effect on me. I was clicking along quite well and felt that I still had a good chance of cracking 1:30 when it happened. Spectators began to pop up and they were shouting at us. I had a hard time making out what they were saying, but eventually the discussion among the runners made it clear. They had to close the course down due to flooding and we were only about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile from the new finish! Huh? Ugh! I took their word to be true and dropped the hammer to the finish, which I believe someone said was 10 miles. My split for miles 6,7,8,9, and 10 was 33:37. If we assume this was in fact 5, I was hitting 6:44s). My guess is that the last 2 miles once the wind stopped I was hitting 6:35s or faster. Man was I dissappointed. I felt great and was certain that in the very least I could have held that pace or even picked up to an average of sub 6:30s.
I have no idea where I finished or even what the exact race distance was. However, if we assume my feeling to be true that I could have held at least 6:30s over the last 3.1 miles I would have hit about a 1:28:15ish for 13.1. Ugh! That would have been a 3 minute PR over my last 1/2 back last November. I couldn't understand why they couldn't make a few alterations and at least get 3 more miles in for everyone to complete a 1/2. I'm sure though that my disappointment was nothing compared to those who had registered for the full marathon.
I got my dry clothes from the bag claim and hopped a bus back to the start area. Most people on the bus were laughing and joking and I have to say that I was with them. It really was a very fun experience and now I can say I've raced through a tropical depression! Although I would have liked to finish the race and get a legitimate PR when I got to the parking area it all came into perspective. I looked across the parking lot and discovered it was severely flooded. Luckily, and it really was luck, because I was late I had to park at the far end of the lot, which was on the high side. There was no way around the lot except to go through it. So I stepped over the rail and began to wade across. By the time I got to the middle the water was above my knees and over the bottom of my shorts! I was passing by cars that had water half-way up their doors! I made it to the other side, got in my car, called my wife and said, I'm on my way home. Truly, I thought, "This was the craziest party there ever could be!"
Ascics Gel Speedstar - 71.15 | 