San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon

Since I missed posting last week, I have two posts today...

On October 2, I ran the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon. It was a cloudy and cool morning, perfect weather for running. With around 10,000 racers, we were divided into 16 corrals based on our estimated finish time. Since my estimate was 2:45, I was is in corral 12. I was there about 30 minutes before the start of the race so I found some friends from Team in Training to chat with before heading to my corral. About 10 minutes before the race started, I made my way to corral 12. There were probably about 500 people squished into a 20ft by 20ft square.

The problem with being towards the back of 10,000 runners is that when the gun went off, we didn’t even move. By the time the people in front of us started moving, we could still only walk a little until we got about 60 feet from the actual start line. Thank goodness our race time didn’t start until our tag on our shoe crossed the start line.

For the first mile, I was able to hold about an 11:30 min/mile pace which was just a little faster than my estimated pace at about 12:35. During the second mile, I settled into a 12:20 min/mile pace. We started passing the bands during the second mile and then roughly every mile after that. With songs like We Will Rock You, Dirty Deeds, and Welcome to the Jungle, it helped me keep up the pace. I held about a 12:30 min/mile pace until around 8 miles. Then I started to feel myself slipping. Although the music kept coming, I had trouble pushing. Then at around 11 miles the hip pain from the previous weekend kicked in with a vengeance. It took every bit of will power to just keep running. Once I rounded the last corner though, I forgot about the crazy pain. I could run through anything for the last 1000 feet. That is exactly what I did, I sprinted to the end faster than at any other point during the race. Thank goodness I did, because although I didn’t make a new personal record, I tied my last one and added another finisher medal to my collection.

A very long 18.5 miles

On September 25, I attempted my longest run to date in preparation for running a marathon on October 23. I was supposed to run 20 miles on the actual marathon course. I’ve been preparing to run the marathon since July and running consistently since May. I felt like I should be ready.

I parked my car at the start line and started my run along the course. The first few miles were nice easy rolling hills. The hills would have been great on a bike, but they weren’t too bad running either. Around 7 miles, I happened upon a porta-potty I decided to take advantage of. I took off my head phones, and by the time I put them back on after using the restroom, my music was off and my phone had died. Not very good luck for a long run in the middle of nowhere alone, but at this point it was almost as far back to the car the way I came as it was to just finish my run. So I continued along the course.

The hills started getting steeper, and it wasn’t the up hill that hurt as much as the down hill on my hips and knees. At around 14 miles, my hip was aching to the point of almost intolerance. At 15 miles, I gave up running. I borrowed a phone from a cyclist and attempted to call my husband. He did not answer, so I left a message, and I rested for about 30 minutes. I figured I couldn’t stay where I was since I was alone at the reservoir park. At this point, I continued along the course. This involved more rolling hills, and one last large hill. I walked another 3.5 miles back into town. By the time I made it into town, my hips and knees were throbbing. I made another call to my husband, who finally returned my call and came to get me. The lessons I learned on that day are way more important than the fact that I will not be running the marathon in 4 weeks.

Lessons Learned

1. Always check your cell phone before leaving on a long run
2. Don’t run an unknown course, at least drive it first
3. Tell someone exactly your course and when you should be home
4. Make sure your husband keeps his phone on him at all times during your run
5. Pick a flat easy course for your first marathon