13.1 in 8:48 avg pace. I'm writing this entry significantly after the fact, so I will try to summarize the main points. Overall, I will probably not be running another rock n' roll event. There are some philosophical reasons as well as logistical reasons. First off, there was a LOT of crap in the participant bags and not a lot of useful stuff, like for example, a map of runners and spectators. It's a big race and I was surprised that they did not include such a map. Now, I know there were maps available online, but I wasn't on top of things, and well, I thought one would likely be provided. Anyways- lots of crap(trying to get you to buy stuff) in the bag, mostly stuff that got thrown away because it couldn't be recycled. Sigh. Okay next; the start and finish was not well marked and therefore difficult to find. There were no well marked signs and given that it was ~15,000 runners + spectators means that it was crowded and difficult to figure out where things were located. Finally found my corral and got in. The race started pretty much on time- which was nice. But there were lots of people that did not find their corrals and just started jumping in wherever. Okay- I guess that is fine. Got running after about 5 minutes of waiting (I guess they decided to hold up some corrals and start in waves because it was so packed). The first two miles were very crowded. Hard to get into a pace with so many different paces and people around. Frustrated. I think we passed the first band somewhere in mile 2ish and I realized that most people actually had ipods on and weren't even listening to the bands. Comical. However- I have a small rant about ipods and headphones in general in big races. When it's very crowded and everyone is wearing headphones- I think people can't hear who is around them and end up inadvertently cutting off runners. OR maybe they are just really rude.. I don't know. But I'm thinking maybe not allowing headphones in big races would be a good thing. I can't say how many times I was cut off in this race while running in a very straight line at a consistent pace by runners wearing headphones and not paying attention to anyone around them. Grrr. Anyways.. the splits:
Mile 1: 9:06
Mile 2: 9:17
Mile 3: 9:28 (the people that started out WAY too fast start clogging up the road here)
Mile 4: 8:54 (ahhh, space! That's more like it)
Mile 5: 9:01
Mile 6: 8:49
Mile 7: 8:51
Mile 8: 8:41
Mile 9: 8:47
Mile 10: 8:50
Mile 11: 8:56
Mile 12: 8:37
Mile 13: 8:16
Mile .27 (from Garmin): 7:22 My garmin was in the heart rate mode, so I couldn't see my splits and I kept missing them at the mile marks from the watch. Since I had started back so far- I wasn't able to calculate on the fly what my pace was from the official clocks when I passed them either- so I was largely running off of what felt right and my heart rate. Towards the end (mile 11,12,13) my heart rate was inching higher and higher and pretty much through the roof down the straight to the finish. I felt like I was going a lot slower than I was, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had finished under 2 hours and judging by my splits afterwards, I probably need to try to start out a bit faster (or get into a faster starting corral). So- I'll leave my philosophical perspective mostly out and I will just say that I wasn't very impressed with the Rock n' Roll event. It felt like they were just there to sell something. I've done other big events.. Bolder Boulder, Chicago Marathon for example, and they didn't have this feel- so I don't think it's the size- but the organizer. If this event is typical of the other RnR events, the fact that they are actively taking over a lot of the more locally organized events, may not be a good thing. In the next year, I am going to actively seek out the low- environmental impact or zero-waste events and give them my entry fee instead.
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