My first half marathon experience was quite eventful. Rain, hail, no porta potties, steep hill climb at the start, only 4 water/gatorade stations (2 of which were in the first 2 miles); 6200 ft of altitude; lots of rollers and an uphill to the finish line made sure that I finished well below my 1:45 goal time. Even with all of that, and a bad post race stomach ache from holding it the whole race, the experience was a net positive. I tried to go out slow, at least what I thought was slow, on the 1 mile hill climb at the start (8:54). I made up the time right away w/ some sub 8 min miles through mile 5. I was in good shape to hit my goal but the altitude, lack of water between miles 2 and 7 caught up to me and I was hurting. I tried to pick it up but another hill between mile 8 and 9 and steady uphill rollers until mile 11 set me back again. The mile 11 turnaround was a nice downhill where I returned to my roughly 8:10 pace. At that point I saw that I would salvage some dignity by finishing under 2 hours. This seemed like a given until the last half mile to the finish which was uphill. That's right, the start and finish were both uphill as a result of a last minute change in the location of the start/finish line on this loop course. This was definitely no easy course- or so I was told by more than one racing veteran. The altitude and the climbs/descents just sapped me. I've actually had better times on training runs than what I ran today but none of my training runs have come close to the hill work I endured today.
Nonetheless, it was a net positive experience. I learned what not to do on this course (i.e. leave my aid belt and gu at home and eat yogurt and a bagel before the start and a cheeseburger and fries the night before. But first and foremost, my wife and I were able to experience a nice weekend alone! Hallelujah! | 