Today I was a different kind of cat. The hilly course almost seemed flat to me and even in places where I thought I was going to lose pace I still ran consistent miles. I finished just a minute slower than my best course time of 1:51 and change in 2011 and my finish was a several minute improvement over last Thanksgiving's race.
All that running (371.67 miles) came through. I was extremely happy with this beta test of the program I will use to train for the Oct. 26 Marine Corps Marathon.
This morning I was worried about finding a place to park so I left at 6 a.m. and found a street parking space on Cone Street at 6:15 a.m. That meant I had a bunch of time before the 7 a.m. race. People were not even in the corrals when I walked over there. I tried to do a warm-up mile but was so tired that I ended up just walking around after .2 mile.
It's kind of weird to be downtown when it's dark out. I just waited around in the corral until we started to move forward. I took it easy for the first two miles but it was extremely congested anyway. On Central Park Street, in the old days of the ING you could run up both sides of the street. This time they only had one side open so that was a little congested. This used to be one of my most dreaded parts of the race. I went up these hills like it was nothing.
Because the Edgewood Avenue bridge is still closed, we detoured down past Jake's Ice Cream and then up Krog Street to Edgewood. There's a bit of a hill here but it didn't matter much.
Going up Freedom Parkway, I took to the curb going up the hill to pass people. One lady seemed surprised like I was pushing so early but I was just running my pace.
Off of Freedom Parkway to North Avenue there was a water station and volunteers were shouting "Sport Beans." Only I didn't see any so I kept on running. At this point I was debating eating my GU gel early but didn't.
At North Highland and Ponce de Leon, something happened that I think only has happened to me once before in a race -- an ambulance with sirens blaring crossed the intersection so the police officer at that spot halted runners to let the vehicle go by.
I finally at the GU gel at the top of the hill on Virginia Avenue. Running down North Highland and Virginia avenues seemed like a chore. But I knew that my family and our parents would be waiting there -- it was a nice place to stop and give the little one a hug. Another kind runner took our picture and then apparently after I continued down the course, little K took mommy's hand and ran all the way to Monroe Avenue, all the while imitating the huffing and puffing of the runners that passed him by.
The hill on 10th Street out of Piedmont Park seemed hard (add the fact the GU gel was churning my stomach at this point) and so did the hills on Juniper Avenue to 5th Street. There was only one other runner including myself pressing here. I ran hard up North Avenue by Bobby Dodd Stadium and there was only one huge hill left to Means Street.
At this point, somewhere around Mile 11, I had a slight tinge in my left calf muscle, which I guess was from not stopping at any of the water/Powerade stations the entire run. It kind of kept me from stepping up my pace after Mile 12 although I cautiously added power, especially in the last half mile of the race.
I was very happy with my finish but at the same time really feel this is too hilly of a race to do every year. The training really did pay off and almost eight hours after I finished the run, my legs are not sore, which is a huge difference compared with each of the other 23 half-marathons I've run in.
Time: 7:02 a.m.
Temp: 55 degrees
Gear: Technical T-shirt, short (Honolulu Marathon in training '14), shorts, Nike Air Pegasus+ 30/A.
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