This race is in Lawrenceville, Illinois and was the second year for the half marathon (they have a 5k too). It is described on their website as "mostly flat" (which I would agree with).
So my training for the two weeks leading up to the race were not ideal. I barely ran for two weeks. So I knew race day was going to be tough. So, I threw out the attempt for a PR and just decided to shoot for around 2 hours.
We drove out Friday night to pick up the packet - pretty uneventful. Then on Saturday morning we got up and went to the race. It started at 7:45 central time so that was 8:45 for me so I got to sleep in a little more than normal for a race, so that was nice since I had not slept much in two weeks. The temperature was going to range from about 35 to 45 in the two hour time frame I was going to be running. The wind was supposed to be no more than 10 mph. So, I decided on shorts, a tank top, and a long sleeve shirt for the run (it only took a couple of wardrobe changes!).
The race started pretty much on time - the half marathoners and the 5k runners all started at the same time. So off we went. Miles 1 and 2 I was running pretty fast. I decided to slow it down some because I didn't think I would be able to hold that pace for much longer. So I decided to try to keep it around 9 min/mile. Around mile 3 the 5k runners turned off to finish their race and we kept going. The "crowd" really thinned out now! I was really thirsty so at the water stop at mile 4 I walked through it to get some gatorade (ewww it's orange gatorade). Ok, back to running until the water stop at mile 6 where I had to stop and get my drink (and picked up a Gu) because they weren't being held out to grab on the go. So drank some more and off I went again. At almost mile 8 I think we turned right and started into the wind. It didn't bother me too much because we were going downhill and I was getting hot and the wind felt good. By about 8 1/2 miles we turned right again and into the wind even more! Yikes! It really got tough from here on out, the wind was only supposed to be up to 10 mph! I think it was at least that if not 15 mph at times. We were running on roads in the middle of a bunch of corn fields so there was no break at all from the wind.
Somewhere around mile 11 we turned right onto gravel! Yikes! I'm not used to running on gravel so I was worried about twisting an ankle so I moved over to the edge to get on more of the dirt and try to avoid the rocks. Fortunately this only lasted for a short while (less than a quarter mile I would guess)! The wind still had not let up and I was definitely getting tired. (this was my slowest mile)
Only two miles to go now though so I just pushed forward. Before long I could see the school (where we started and finished) and my motivation picked up some although it didn't feel like my pace did! We turned into the school and ran up a little and then onto the track. One lap around and it was the finish line. I pushed hard at the end but it felt like I was standing still!
I finished the race in 1:58:26. Not a PR but beat my 2 hour goal! At the finish line was my Mom and her friend cheering me in so that was pretty cool :)
I ended up coming in 7th out of 34 women and was 2nd in my age group! Not bad for not running much for two weeks!
Overall I think they did a really good job putting on this race. It started on time and there were plenty of water stops. Not only did they give out Gu but they also had Honey Stinger nutrition around mile 10 I think. I only had a couple of things I would change - if they had more volunteers it would be good for them to hold the cups out so people don't have to stop to get something to drink; the shirts need to be gender specific; and the age group awards should be broken down into the same intervals for both the 5k (5 year intervals) and the half marathon (10 year intervals).
Here is my garmin data - the heart rate data is useless though.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/288590633
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