I was SO grateful for the hook up I got to pace this half marathon! Lowell has asked me to come up and do this race, but between Park City and SGM? nah. I never knew there was a half though! So when offered to pace the 2:00 slot I jumped on it. Quite a few other fabulous runners from SLC joined the marathonpacing.com team to pace this race as well and I was privileged to drive 4 of them up to Pokey as well. We met at my home at 2PM on Friday. Rachelle, Julie C, Jonathan Crampton (runs Utah Race Pacers) and Blaine Hawkes (runs Lehi Round-up) and I all crammed into my little Honda Civic and drove up to Pocatello. Great company and fun stories all around. We had a shift to work at the expo booth with specific instructions on how to talk to racers about pace teams. It was a lot different than I was used to, but it was nice to talk to the runners and get to know them before the race. A lot of people thought they'd have to pay for it! Crazy! Anyway, we also got to go to the pasta dinner for the race and it was okay food...well, the salad and vegetarian lasagna were okay :) Afterward Rachelle and I decided to hit the streets of Pocatello and go get frozen yogurt (ice cream for me) and any extras we needed. Then we settled in for a night of restless sleep. It rained nearly all night and the thunder through the thin plexiglass front of our room didn't provide a lot of sound insulation. But, it made getting up easier. Out the door by 6:10 to meet the other pacers in the lobby and take a shuttle to the park...then the bus to the start. Meh, no pressure race. As long as we got there. Besides the rockin' early 90's music on every speaker in Pocatello it was all rather uneventful. Except the fun chatter! At the start I was a little overwhelmed with the number of people following me like I was the mother hen. Yes, I had my 2:00 pace sign, but give me some room people! I guess I should've been a little better about chatting them up beforehand, but when the marathoners started running by I wanted to go and cheer them on (the full starts at 6:15 and the half at 8:00 AT the 13.1 mile mark so we got to see a few marathoners and fellow pacers fly by). I guess I get a FAIL for pre-race chatter :) I did chat with them for about 10-15 minutes BEFORE the runners came by and the couple minutes before the start when we lined up though. That counts for something...right? The race started with no gun and as I was chatting with my peeps in the group I turned and there was 15 feet of no one in front of us. Crap! GO! So, we went and I continued my chatter the first half mile. The interesting thing about this pace group is that they don't allow you to run with a GPS. Just a stop watch. That is all. The director doesn't like the false credibility given to garmins and such and doesn't want to deal with mixed feed back of pacer garmin v runners garmin, so he just says you don't use one as a pacer. I had a pace band and had to time my splits by the mile markers on the road. I knew the first mile would be a guessing game until I saw the split and if I needed to speed up or slow down. This was my biggest worry! That first mile and getting the pace locked in my legs. Thanks to Rachelle in front of me and gauging off her 8:24 pace for 1:50 I hit the first one right on the money. Excellent! Not every mile would be that smooth, but it worked for the first one to lock in the pace. My gripe was that the mile markers were all for the marathon. None for the half, so we had to play mathematician as we ran to add the constant pace for the .1 of a mile to the time when we hit the .9 markers each mile. Have I ever mentioned my brain doesn't work when I'm running? :) I had a fairly large group to start with and some really amazing peeps and we all had fun chatting along the way and sharing stories. With a tail wind, sometimes the sign would blow off my shoulder, so I would hold it. This poor guy who was always right off my L shoulder got jabbed with the stick a couple times when I had it in my hand instead of up. So, it turned into my cattle prod :) We ate hills for breakfast and was cheered on by a train flying by on the tracks next to us! That was probably my favorite part of the race!! The train rumbling by and the wind you felt from it and just the energy it put into me! That mile was probably a little fast :) I cautioned my runners at the first GU station that if they hadn't trained with Gu (lots of first timers!) to NOT take any! If they did they would most likely meet my friend porta-John - from one end or the other, so just don't do it! We then discussed gu and fuel and had a good conversation about how to properly fuel for a race. I hope they remember it! About mile 8 or 9 (after a couple good downhill miles) I was about 40 seconds ahead of pace. My group nearly all still with me, but I told them we were walking through the aid station and to actually get fluids IN. A few of the guys (the one always getting proded!) took off ahead and trying to maintain pace I let them go. They were running strong and pulled enough ahead I lost track of them! Shortly after there was the most significant hill of the course under the freeway. Because of the staggered start of the race there were lots of marathoners shooting for 3:40-3:45 around us. It was fun to be able to pick them up and help them too. I did this for one guy on the hill. He was walking and I said "C'mon, don't give up now. You can follow our pace - you've come this far!" and I convinced him to power up the hill with us. He said "thanks SO much for that!" at the aid station and took off. The last few miles of the race are now in town on the road and not nearly as scenic and beautiful as the first part, but there are more crowds to cheer you on. I'd tell the spectators "We won't tell your loved ones you cheered for us too!" :) They'd always laugh at that one. I love to get the crowd involved. By this time I was down to 2 original groupies. Joette (Lowell's friend that he entrusted in my care) and another girl (I don't remember ANY names!! Emmy maybe?) and they were plugging right along! I totally lost track of miles between 8 and 12! We'd come to a mile marker and they seemed to come SO fast and I'd forget which mile we were at and have to wait until I could see the sign to read my pace band for where we should be! We'd lost our cushion and were about 40 seconds behind pace - shoot. Too much fun. So, I didn't walk the next couple aid stations and utilized the flatish downhill to pick it up. By mile 12 (11.9) we'd made it up and were right on track! During mile 11 There were a couple marathoners that I helped and pulled along (one poor girl that puked twice!). They could no longer maintain their 8:30's they were shooting for, but our 9:10 was doable. It felt great to not only push my half crew, but to help struggling marathoners as well. At mile 12 my last 2 ladies left me in their dust...so I grabbed walking marathoners and halfers and convinced them to run! Then, they'd leave me in their dust :) So, my last half mile was really pretty lonely. As I came trotting into the finish chute with huge crowds I was all alone and just said "all my groupies left me in their dust!" Got a few good laughs. According to the timex I crossed at 1:59:56 and later saw that it was also my official chip time! Excellent. I felt like my first non-garmin, high stress (guy is super organized and a little crazy about making sure pacers are RIGHT on), unknown course pacing job turned out well. Rachelle and I took off afterward to run back on the course and find Smooth and Lowell and to get some extra miles. Only problem was my legs were locked in at 9:10 pace and hers at 8:24 and neither wanted to compromise! :) So, I got left in the dust again...except when she was nice and would come back for me. I just could NOT get my legs to go faster! About mile 1.25 or so, we saw Smooth running strong! What an animal that lady is! Park City in 5:00 2 weeks ago, then 4:27 was her finish for Pocatello full today! I'm so impressed with how well she is coming back - like she didn't miss a beat. When we got to the finish chute for Smooth I turned back and went to collect Lowell and harass him a little bit. Great fun afterward! I also saw 2 of my runners that had started with me...behind the 2:20 pacers. The girls had just had different issues that had pulled them back. Broke my heart! BUT, they all finished! At the finishers corral they have BBQ sandwiches and Baked Potatoes - holy cow! What a feast. Too bad I'm not a pork fan and wasn't too hungry. I did eat 60% of the potato though, except I may have eaten more sour cream and butter than potato :) Said good-byes to Smooth and Lowell and then Bronwyn (the 2:10 pacer) took Rachelle and I back to the hotel. We weren't sure how strict the Noon check out would be and with only 20 minutes left we discussed the possibility of getting a shower pacer. If you dropped the soap and lost too much time it might just turn into a bawling DNF! :) After saying good-byes to new, amazing fellow pacers that we met we packed all five of us (3 had paced the FULL) into my little Civic and started for home. We stopped in Tremonton and then again in Kaysville. Kaysville was supposed to be a quick, you'd hardly remember we stopped stop. Oops! Krispy Kreme's drive thru was SO slow!! I think we spent 20 minutes there. We asked for free donuts for waiting so long and we got them! They were all consumed (as well as the ones purchased) by the time we got back on the freeway. Should've just gone in and stretched the legs! It was a wonderful weekend/Day away from home with great company. Fun stories shared all around and memories to last a lifetime. I'd definitely go back and pace this one again! No question. No question. Hopefully, I'll get the opportunity to do so as well.
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