Hartford Half Marathon
List of omens/ typical excuses:
2nd shift Thursday, 1st shift Friday...To start off the morning on Friday, dropped an egg while trying to make an omelette to show myself how tired I was. Throughout Friday, I kept receiving random phone calls and texts from Texas. Do people know how to use phones/ enter numbers in correctly?
On the way to Hartford, we swerve last second to avoid a deer chilling in the street (which happens on the way back, too). I walk in toting my Ninja Turtles duffel bag to the surprise and delight of those that recognize the characters.
Cardinal sin:
Ate pizza for the first time in a long time the night before. At midnight.
Bonus:
Stayed with the most hospitable people ever, the Waldrons. Brian, our first resident, his father, and cousin would run the half as well. To validate our friendship, we both agreed and watched Without Limits races (minus Munich obvi) right before sleep at midnight and agreed this was the superior Pre movie.
Credentials:
Brian-just ran a 19:31 5k the week before
His dad-qualified for some small marathon in Boston
His cousin-cross country coach
Missed:
Expo day with THE Bill Rodgers.
Goal: 1:45/ have fun and enjoy running a new city.
Wake up at 5:30 am, (~9 hours of sleep in the past two nights), chewing on a banana and a Skippy-smeared raisin bagel. Rock my yellow Nike Free 4.0's which has brought me good luck along with my Tang Clan shirt and iPod. Brian, his father and I head over to pick up his cousin and we park with relative ease in Hartford, about a quarter mile from the race. On the ride over, there was plenty of locker room banter about the bachelors in the car and all the single ladies today which kept us loose and smiling.
Upon arrival, I was dumbfounded by the leaves changing, the beautiful weather in the 50s, and the awesome buildings downtown. In typical dad fashion, the phrase 'Where's Tang' kept getting uttered as I portapottied it solo and this phrase was said more than astronauts (badumpcha, credit Brian's cousin). We warmed up around the starting line which showed me the other side of Hartford.
The pre-race saw us trying to wiggle our way to the 1:45 pace setter to no avail since, this is A race and no one knows what that means. As we waited around for the start, we were treated to a funny emcee that wasn't English and an invocation...
Yeah, an invocation.
Due to the fact I was going through ACL music festival withdrawals, I started with my ACL playlist and Tame Impala.
The start of the race had us plodding along at 8:30 pace until a quarter mile in when I couldn't take it any more and rode the sidewalks. The first three felt very uneven as I stormed through the second and tried to dial it back for mile three. The GPS showed I had run an extra .08 already.
We split off from the marathoners and took a right when they took a left. We would not be that female runner in Canada that trained for a half, took a wrong turn, and oh, won the full marathon.
I tried to sit on people's paces and stay around 8's since my goal today was revised from sub 1:40 to sub 1:45 due to the hectic and swiss cheese training of the past month.
Skipped the first water stop, took the rest using the hooked finger and pinch technique.
Unfortunately I was dealing with not being fully evacuated and kept debating whether or not to hit up a portapotty.
At around mile 6, I couldn't stand it any more and went in to a portapotty for 52 seconds. How'd I know that? My GPS watch stops whenever I do so my finish time was 52 seconds slower than my watch.
Upon leaving, I broke in to a stinger packet that also left a glove on the course. RIP left light Nike glove, a casualty of running. (Bonus, get to buy new gloves...something's wrong with me) I tried running faster to keep 1:45 in my sights and came upon the 1:45 pace setter with his yellow jersey, sans 1:45 flag at about the 8 mile mark while in a residential area.
At this point I wasn't sure if I could stay within striking distance until the honey kicked in and I kept churning. I passed a tent that had vuvuzelas (these are still a thing?) and cow bells for free to which I knew I wanted one to commemorate this race.
We snaked through a picturesque park as I came side to side with the pace setter and his crew made up of other 1:45'ers. At one point, he said he was 5 seconds off the pace so I thought I gotta stay ahead of him, especially during the stretch where I let go and cruised on the downhills. Cruised, but this would not be the last 10k miracle a la the last half and the last full marathon as I had no extra gear to hit.
Exiting the park, I saw a sign spoofing the blog, Hyperbole and a Half's writer saying "run all the miles!"
I picked it up at mile 11 but the rolling hills turned in to an uphill as I tried to hold on for dear life and make sure the pace setter was in my rear view mirror. Ultimately, kept trying to relax and really stopped staring at my GPS.
Coming downhill on the last half mile or so, spot our cheering section from behind and veer right to tap em and bounce off to finish. The gag reflex showed up as I was aware of finishing soon. Where the finish line was confused me as I thought the building similar to the Gansett Casino was it. Wrong. The kid that was the shadow of the 1:45 pacer decided to sprint here to which I shrugged my shoulders, looking for someone to acknowledge the ridiculousness of it all.
The end saw me cycling Tame Impala's "Half Glass Full of Wine" and "Elephant" as my groin became sore thanks to the training hiatus.
Finished with the announcer saying "Aaron Tang, from Providence" and swag giveaway started as Brian's father and I finished at around the same time as we saw the speedsters cheering us on (his cousin at 1:25:30 :bows: and Brian at 1:32).
1:43:12 (gps 13.21 miles, 1:42:20 without porta break)
We received a nice water bottle, a sweet finisher's medal, a bag of food (a rarity now with the economy the way it is).
Heading back towards the starting line, everything had been cleaned up and you can hardly tell there was a race. The volunteers were great, the chute of people at the end helped cheer us on, and apparently its one of the lowest carbon foot print races.
After four grown men changed clothes at 11 A.M. in public (that's normal) and chugging chocolate milk at DD, we headed back to the beer and food tent (non-elite tents) to have a Harpoon, chug tomato soup, eat some grilled cheese, and drink another chocolate milk.
Other than cheering "Go Tang Go!" "Where'd Tango?", Brian's 2 year old Brady got me a cow bell, too. (Queue 'awwwwwws' from the females)
Post race:
Brian mentioned that the faster you are in a race, you tend to run by yourself and not "race" as much (as apparent by Knapp's 5k pics). #fastproblems
fried chicken and pizza, and a trip extending 4 OT game of Michigan and Penn State before we head home at 11:30 pm.
I thought about all the bands I've seen recently, and now I am thinking of all the states I've run in which just means one thing: I'm getting older.
Texas, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Florida, Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania.
Going forward, I want to take a week break then think about how badly I want sub 1:40, sub 20. How I reach these goals is apparent in Brian's finishing times; speed work.
It was nice to meet another running family, lamenting about pacers, negative splits, gagging, walkers, etc.
It must be a dad thing to apply Ben Gay pre-race.
Chicago Marathon watching the day after, looking for Knapp on the coverage.
Great swag:
shirt, water bottle commemorating the 20th year of the race, bag, nice medal, and cow bell.
