Monday, May 07, 2007
Lincoln Half Recap
Courtney Crutcher
30th National Guard Lincoln Marathon
Half Marathon
Time 2:28.47
Pace 11:17
Julie, Dan and I headed up to Lincoln early Saturday afternoon for packet pickup and the Carbo dinner. After we got our packets we drove the course for the half and full marathons. Dan and I were doing the half, Julie the full. This was Julie’s first full. I had previously done a 13.1 but that was in the Half Ironman, so technically this was my first attempt at it on fresh legs. My split time in the HIM was 3:20.22.
The course winds through downtown and just outside of it- mostly flat and the “hills” are kind of a joke. Now, there are a few, but really, none of them are Adams Dairy Parkway hills, so we all felt pretty prepared. It had been raining quite a bit that morning so when we drove through the park area that Julie would run through, we saw that a bunch of the benches were half under water. Yikes! After we drove the course and checked in at the hotel we went to the pasta dinner on campus. It was good, whatever it was- some kind of noodle and marinara sauce. I wanted to eat 2 plates, but my stomach told me that wasn’t a good idea. The sky had been threatening rain since we left for the dinner, but when we came out it was a downpour. It was unreal the amount of rain coming down! When we headed back to the hotel we had to pull into the median because of the water of the road- a car was even stranded in the river that was once the road! Then the hotel parking lot was more of the same. It was ridiculous!
We got into our room and turned on the TV to watch a movie, thinking that the rain would HAVE to let up. I kind of thought that maybe the rain would be psyching Julie out- I was kind of nervous but not bad, but I had gone that distance before and she was doing the full! However, she stayed pretty calm. I think her being focused and relaxed helped me not fret over it, usually I feel like I am the calm one with my friends when it comes to racing, but I was SO IMPRESSED with how relaxed Julie stayed. We turned off the lights about 9:30 and feel asleep listening to the rain fall. I guess at some point in the night Dan got up to go check if the car was underwater- the rain had never stopped. Funny, because I had a dream that we got to the start and they were handing out swim caps and goggles because we had to swim instead of run.
The alarm went off at 5:00am and I pulled open the curtain just to have a look outside Please let it be clear, Please! I thought to myself. Instead it was the exact opposite. It was coming down like it had after dinner. I just started laughing. Julie asked me what was up and I told her that the only thing I could do was laugh. Luckily, Jules had enough sense the night before to stop and get clear trash bags for us to wear to keep up warm and dry. Good call!
We all went down for breakfast and Dan went outside to see how bad it was. He came back and made some comment about it blowing sideways. I thought he was joking so I went to see for myself. When the doors opened I could swear I was in the middle of a typhoon. I came back laughing again. After a few minutes Julie had to see for herself- the look on her face was priceless. I think we all had the same dread about us but no one wanted to really say it- THIS IS GOING TO SUCK.
Amazingly, after we got parked and to the start line it had let up a little, but by no means had stopped. We got organized and I decided to start back with Julie. I knew she’d run at a slightly slower pace (she’s running the full!), but I really wanted to get to run with her. She and I went through the chip mat about 8 minutes after the start and that was the official beginning of our race. We ran side by side for the first mile. We saw a guy running up a head with an M-dot (Ironman) tattoo on the back of his leg. We both wanted to catch him but decided not to push the pace. Julie had been training with this “Run a mile walk a minute” routine that was working really really well for her, but I wanted to run so when she started walking we split up. The first mile split was 12:40. It turned out that it was great for me to start out slower because I didn’t rush and was able to settle into a good pace. I actually caught up with the M-Dot guy and his wife and discussed Ironman racing with them for the next two miles. They were running 10:10 miles and I wanted to hear everything they were saying so I kept running with them. Then the wife wanted to walk, so I kept on trucking. For the next few miles I ran mostly by myself or here and there with various groups and people. I was holding pretty consistently about 11:00 minutes a mile. I finally took off my trash bag about mile 5. It hadn’t stopped raining, but I was way to hot to keep that thing on. At about mile 9 or 10 I came across an older gentleman (that was ahead of me!) running along he said his name was Brown and I ran with him for about a mile and a half. Another gal name Krista joined in with us. We listened to him tell stories about how he was 78 years old and this was his 50th something marathon. So amazing. When he stopped to walk I realized that we had slowed down to his pace which was 12- something and I felt like I could get up and go so Krista and I took off. The last time I hit a split on my watch was at mile 11, so I didn’t get my 12 mile or 13 mile split times. However, after the finish the last split I had on my watch was 22:20, so for the last 2.1 miles we ran about 10:40 pace. It was helpful to have Krista with me because she knew the campus well and knew exactly where the finish was. Nearing the end the wind picked up and I had her drop behind me, she was really short and petite and I knew I could block the wind for her because she was starting to struggle. I really pushed as hard as I could and I actually dropped her just before mile 13. My actual finish time was 2:28.47, I don’t remember the clock time.
Dan had finished about 15 minutes before me (at 2:13.58) so we went and waited for Julie to come thru the Half point and cheered her on. Her 13.1 split was 2:48.29 and she looked really strong. She actually surprised both Dan and I (I was in the middle of switching into a dry shirt when she was coming up the street so I was trying to dress myself and cheer her on at the same time) with how quick she came up. He and I then went and took showers and met back up to drive out to see her by the turnaround. When we saw her then she wasn’t quite looking all that happy, and she was walking, but she was walking fast. You could tell she was hurting, but she wasn’t stopping, for damn sure. Dan and I found Julie’s parents at the finish and we waited for her to come through the line. She did (running at that!), and her time was 6:08.07. She did great and I am SO PROUD!! She never gave up and I am really jealous I couldn’t do it with her.
After the race we ate lunch with Julie’s folks, and then Dan drove us back in the monsoon to KC.
All in all, a great race weekend (besides the tsunami).
Results are available at OnlineRaceResults.com
180 days until IronMan!!!