I Got Lucky @ the Little Rock Half Marathon!

On Sunday, I ran the 2013 Little Rock Half Marathon held in Little Rock, Arkansas. This was my first time traveling by plane to a race and it was a pretty cool experience. It seems like the flight on Saturday morning was full of nothing but runners heading in to participate in the Little Rock Marathon events. This year’s theme was “Get Lucky” with more of a western flare. I wanted to wear a little cowboy hat for the race, but the weather was a bit questionable for the weekend and so I opted to leave it home. 

This wasn’t my first time in The Rock. I have traveled here numerous times when my brother was stationed at LRAFB. It was really nice to return to this great city, after a few years, for an awesome race. I didn’t do any real sight seeing, but I did take a few photos of some buildings in the downtown area that I didn’t take in previous years. I've been to President Clinton's library before, but I thought it was cool to get a picture of it at night.

I arrived in Little Rock around 9 a.m. on Saturday. The next flight out of ATL would have gotten me there around 3:45 p.m. The expo hours ended at 5 p.m. and I didn’t want to take a chance at missing the final packet pick-up time due to a flight delay or time wasted getting my rental car. Getting there early was a good idea. I was able to do some running around after leaving the expo and before it came time to check-in at the hotel. 

Getting to the hotel was a bit of an issue being that I decided to stay in one that was located downtown and right at the starting line. Some of the roads were blocked, but I was finally able to find the hotel, park in the garage, and get myself settled in.

Okay, enough of the fodder. Time for the race stuff...

GENERAL INFO:

Race start: Sunday, 8:00 am for the 10K / Half Marathon / Marathon. There was a 6:00 a.m. early start for marathoners requiring more than 6 hours to finish the full. There was a staggered start for each corral. 

Temps: Around 26* with mild winds. On Saturday, there was snow flurries. Those who ran the 5K and the Kids Marathon had a treat. Glad I came prepared for the weather here.

Song playing right before our corral took off: “Country Girl (Shake it For Me)” by Luke Bryan. I’m from the south and was raised and still live in rural SC. I consider myself a Southern girl and not a country girl (sometimes it gets confused), but I have to admit, this tune was right on time. I think I found another song to add to my collection of eclectic music. LOL!

MY EXPERIENCE:

After a quick warm-up run and stretch. I went back to my hotel room to empty the bladder again. The lines to the porta-johns was too long and I didn’t see the point of waiting. I’d have to abandon that way of thinking sooner than I thought...

I found my way into the Open Corral on President Clinton Blvd, and situated myself between the 5:10 and 5:25 marathon pace teams (there were no pace teams for the half). I didn’t want to go out too fast and knew that by running the first mile or two with the groups I would be on target. I also wanted to know how this pace felt, being that my predicted marathon finish time is currently 5:10 based off my fastest HM time. 

Song playing right before our corral took off: “Country Girl (Shake it For Me)” by Luke Bryan. I’m from the south and was raised and still live in rural SC. I consider myself a Southern girl and not a country girl (sometimes it gets confused), but I have to admit, this tune was right on time. LOL!  I think I found another song to add to my collection of music. I’m very eclectic.

Miles 1- 3: I don’t know if it was the extra cup of coffee I drank that morning, the dancing at the start, or some hidden nervous energy that irritated my bladder, but sometime before mile 2, I felt the urge to take a leak - AGAIN! It was a strong urge. I figured if I kept running and not think about it, I’d be okay -- the urge would go away. But I just couldn’t shake it! I knew that if I didn’t stop soon, this would turn out to be a miserable run. I’ve never had to stop during a race to use the portables and was a bit taken aback by this experience. I wasted about 5 minutes doing the pee-pee dance in line while waiting to use a stall and I knew at that moment that this would probably not be a PR race for me. I would be cutting it really close. With that in mind, I decided that my new goal would be to at least catch up with the 5:25 pace team. I knew that if I caught up with them, I could get ahead of them and would finish the race at a more acceptable time. For me, anything is acceptable as long as I finish it faster than my slowest. 

Miles 4-6: Wow! There go the first of the Elites! It’s always an awesome site to see the fastest men and women around, blaze by you in record time. Finish times most of us only dream about. But honestly, I’d be happy with a conversational 10:30 pace. 

Okay, back to me...(brace yourself), somewhere around mile 4 someone lost their gallon zip lock bag full of fried chicken. LMAO! I kid you not! It was right there in the middle of the road. I don’t know if it was a joke move or a marathoner lost his fuel along the way, but it was the funniest thing we had seen during the entire race. I wanted to go back and take a photo so bad, but I was just too determined to catch back up with the pace teams at this point. I hope no one tripped over it. Can you imagine that? LOL!! Somewhere right before the 10K split and crossing over the Broadway Bridge I was able to meet and get ahead of the 5:25 group. The 10K runners broke away shortly after we crossed the bridge.

Miles 7-10: We’ve made our way into the residential area of the course. Several of the residents were giving some crowd support to us. One guy decided to play his guitar and sing to us from his front porch. [There was some musical entertainment provided by various groups at every mile for the race]. The half marathon and marathon split right around mile 10.

Miles 11- Finish: There are quite a few hills in the course, but I was still able to keep running close to my target pace, despite the elevation changes. It wasn’t until around mile 12 (after the beer stop), that I began to feel some tightness in my left quad. I kept running, but when the muscle started to spasm shortly thereafter, I stopped so that I could rub it out a bit. I walked for about a minute or two before picking up more speed to finish my race. Maybe I should have downed that free cup of beer at mile 11 instead of taking the free Loreal lipsticks. Beer is good for muscles, right? LOL!

I made it through the finish line, received my medal, took a picture, ate a few items provided as fuel (they had chocolate milk on tap) and made my way back to the hotel. 

END RESULT:

Offical Chip time: 2:35:51 my PB is 2:28:54

Garmin data: 13.29 miles in 2:35:47

Final thoughts: This was a great race. I really enjoyed myself and look forward to returning in 2014. My goal is to make the Little Rock Marathon my #2 if all goes well with my debut this November. I MUST get my hands on one of those ridiculous marathon medals! It’ll all be worth it.

Half Marathon medal and
Marathon medal

Thanks for reading and Happy Running!

Whoa! Where Did the Time Go?

I just realized that I didn't report two additional races that I finished recently.

Let's see. I ran a trail race with a friend on January 26th. It was the Mountain in the Middle 12K/17K trail run in Harbison State Forest located in Columbia, SC. This was my first time running a 12K trail race and also the first time meeting a Facebook/Runner's World Online running friend. It was a great trail running experience and a great way to meet a virtual friend up close and personal.

On February 9th, I ran my seventh Half Marathon. It was the Hilton Head Island Half in my home state of SC. This was a race that I ran with a running friend and a race I dedicated to a fellow runner who is a cancer survivor. It was a very rewarding and humbling experience to do something for someone who is struggling with such a disease. I was also able to help my friend achieve her own personal best finish time during the race.

Well, that's what I've been up to. I'm not going to go into any further details about each event, being that so much time has passed. But I figured I'd better jot down what I've been doing for the last month or so.

Happy Running!

First Race of the Year: Charleston Half Marathon

My first race for 2013 was the Charleston Half Marathon held in Charleston, SC. This was my sixth HM and one of the best races I’ve had the opportunity to run. It was one of several events of the 3rd Annual Charleston Marathon. The marathon, half marathon, and 5K events were held on Saturday, January 19th. There is a kid’s marathon hosted on the Friday before and a Bike Ride held on the Sunday after. This was also my first experience with this race.


Being that Charleston is only a little over an hour away from where I live, I decided not to get a hotel room and just drive to the Expo early Friday morning and then to the race on Saturday. The events had an 8:00am start which made it doable. Oh, did I mention that I also won a free entry to this event. I registered back in November and sometime right before Christmas, I received a refund of my registration fee from Active.com. To this day, I have no clue as to what contest I won. The Charleston Marathon did host a contest, but the winner for that event was announced on their Facebook page. I never received any notification from Active via email, so instead of continuing to inquiry about it, I decided to just let sleeping dogs lie and accept the blessing. 


THE POTATOES:

• Temps: Upper 30s with 10mph winds at the start. Great, considering the record high temps we had a week prior.
• Course: Fast very scenic and pretty much flat. Point-to-point race w/ paid shuttle back to start.
• No. of participants: 3747
• Perks: Local entertainment provided by local bands and students. An expo. Plenty of free parking at the start. Complimentary shrimp & grits, beer, and lots of other goodies at the post race party. Finisher’s medal, LS tech tee with a picture from a featured local artist displayed on the front, and a reflective swag bag.
• Performance: I kept my pace between 11:25-11:55/mm. This was not a goal HM, but I always like to keep a finish time objective -- “run it better than your first.”

NOTE: I didn’t take any pictures during the race. So the few area photos that I have posted in this report are what I’ve found online, just to give anyone who has never been to Charleston an idea of what the course had to offer.


THE MEAT:

I arrived to the start at Burke High School in Charleston around 7:20 a.m. I would have gotten there a little sooner, but I left my cell phone on the charger and had to turn back around to go home. After finding a parking spot, I made my way into the school to take a bathroom break. Was so glad that this was a large high school. There were plenty of restrooms available, so the wait in line was fairly short. Oh, another cool perk is that they made the locker rooms accessible to participants if you needed to take a shower once you returned back to the start. I thought that was a pretty cool gesture. (Just in case you were wondering. The school was closed for the first semester break and MLK holiday). 


Once I did some last minute wardrobe and equipment checks, I made my way outside of the school towards the starting line. This was one of the most relaxed starts I’ve had so far. The crowd pretty much strolled to the starting mat. Of course, I always start in the back. I guess that’s why the time on my Garmin was almost dead-on with my chip time.

Battery Park

Miles 1 - 3: This is the absolute best part of the city. These first few miles take you toward Battery Park. Nothing but beautiful plantation homes and the Charleston Harbor in your sights. This is one of the most popular areas to sight see and to get a great run in. This year’s medal has the Battery pictured on it. Lots of people stopped to take pictures of the harbor and the homes. In the spring time, the flowers/foliage is so gorgeous in this area. 

King Street

Miles 4 - 6: We have made our way downtown and are now running up King Street and towards North Charleston. This street has many of your finest boutiques, stores, and eating establishments. I’m glad nothing was open at the time. I’ve spent plenty of money in this area. Primarily in the Apple store. LOL!


Miles 7-10: Now I wish I did pull out my phone to take a picture. Sometime after the water/Gatorade/Gummi bear stop we came across two soldiers on the route who were in their BDUs and carrying packs. They were running the HM. I missed them at the start, and was truly impressed to see them this far ahead toting all of that extra weight. These guys rocked! That was the most inspiring moment of the race. [The marathon and half marathon course split in opposite directions right before mile marker 10].

Riverfront Park

Miles 11 - 13.1(?): After making it through an industrial area and another residential area, we made our way to Riverfront Park in North Charleston. I’ve posted an aerial view of the park to give you a better idea of what it looks like. We ran the entire loop of Riverfront Park, taking in all of the beautiful scenery and monuments located out there. This was my first time visiting this part of the city and so it was very nice to be able to run in this area. It was also a nice way to end the final portion of the race. Everyone who crossed the finish line had their name announced and the city/state that they represented. 

After crossing the finish line, I got my medal and then took some time to enjoy the food, beer, music and camaraderie at the post race party before boarding the shuttle back to the start.


RESULTS:

Gun time: 2:40:04
Chip time: 2:36:35 (Not a PR, but ranked #3 out of 6)
Garmin results: 13.21 miles in 2:36:38


On to the next!


Thank you for reading. Happy Running!

My 2012 in Review!

2012 was my first year of racing and pretty much my first year of serious running. It was awesome!!

Breakdown:

2 - 5Ks (one 2nd place AG award)

1 - 10K (first race and acquired a rare medal)*

2 - 12Ks

5 - Half Marathons

I am officially a Half Fanatic #3091

I registered for my first Full Marathon for 2013

*My first medal, the Columbia SC Marathon's 10K is rare because that particular inagural event has since been eliminated and replaced with a 4-person marathon relay. Anyone who received a finishers medal for that race has something special*

My original 2012 goal was to run 800 miles. I ran a total of 985.24 miles!

Jan - Jun via MapMyRun = 501.22

Jul - Dec via DailyMile = 484.02

What a way to end the year!

Happy Running and Happy New Year!

USRA Columbia Half Marathon: My #5 Summary

I ran my 5th HM the USRA Columbia Half Marathon in the capital city of South Carolina on Saturday. This was also my 10th and final race for 2012. I had a difficult time early on finding someone who actually ran the race in previous years. It wasn’t until around Halloween that I started getting feedback on the organization (Reinke Sports Group) that actually conducts these half marathon race events. The info wasn’t pretty. A lot of runners have chosen to ban/boycott these events for various reasons. It’s understandable, but I haven’t had any personal experience with some of what had allegedly transpired with other folks, and so I decided to give the race a chance. Besides, this was it’s fourth year in Columbia, SC and despite some typical complaints, there weren’t any major issues to steer me in another direction. Plus, one of the major running clubs in the area was sponsoring the event, so I felt a bit more assured about my decision to run this race, especially without any real expectations on how I would complete it. 

Race Tidbits: 

Number of participants: 260 total runners for the Half Marathon (not sure about the 5K)

Time limit: 4 hours (walker friendly)

Course: Downtown Columbia/Cayce 

Temps: 39 degrees at the start. Don’t think it warmed up much at the finish due to the overcast.

Swag: Nice tech shirt and medal - No Expo

Volunteers: Yeah right! Glad I brought my Amphipod with me. Three of the water/gatorade stations were self-serve. 

Race Synopsis:

• The race started at 7:30. I arrived at about 6:45 at Brookland-Cayce High School where the race will begin and end. It was evident when I got there that this was going to a very small event. Clue? Lots of available parking.

• Met two fellow Half Fanatics that decided to run this event about a week ago. One of the highlights of the day.

• We all piled up in one vehicle to drive to a nearby gas station to use the facilities after discovering that the restrooms in the football stadium where locked. Someone forgot to unlock the doors. 

• We lined up next to the stadium to start. No timing pad here. Just some red duct tape.The announcer says a few more words, and then yells “GO” and we’re off. Eh, I’ve experienced that before in a 5K this past summer. 

Miles 1-4: Columbia, SC is full of hills; especially near the State Capital/USC area. You really can’t get around it. So we had to suck it up early and push through. But, you get used to the terrain if you race and train in this area. 

Miles 5-10: This was both the most peaceful and confusing part of the course. The Riverwalk Park has a great route that runs along the Congaree River. Portions of it starts as a trail near the reservoir, turns into a paved course and then ends up as a winding walkway behind apartment buildings in the local area. It covers a good distance if you run it in it’s entirety. It became confusing for those of us in the back of the pack, because people began to get out of your line of sight at this point. We couldn’t exactly figure out which direction we needed to go once we got near the apartments. It's a very scenic area so it is easy to get sidetracked along the way. Focusing on where to go basically compromised your pace for this portion of the course. Searching for the small signs with the directional arrows really didn't help either. 

Miles 11-13.08 or something: We emerged from the park near the neighborhood where the school is located. We ran one mile on an adjacent street before making our way around to where we started the race and then back into the stadium where we finished on the track. I paused my Garmin at 13.08. It’s possible this course was a bit short, but I’m not going to worry about that at this point.

Honestly, this was the only shabby race I’ve had this year. Being that it was so small, there was nothing exciting about it. I’m sure the controversy surrounding the organization that puts on this series was a factor in the matter. No crowd support, lack of volunteers, etc. It was so depressing. If it wasn’t for the other runners, the police department, and a few morning joggers, I wouldn’t have believed I was participating in an official event. Just on another friendly weekend distance run with the local running club. Along the way, I just decided to truly treat this as a training run and not even bother to push it for a time goal. I finished it about a minute short of what I ran for my first half marathon.

Statistics
Time: 2:41:48
First HM time: 2:42:39
PB: 2:28:54

Oh well. We all get those crappy races/training runs on occasion and so I just decided to accept it as such. I wouldn’t participate in this one again in the near future, unless I just needed something to do in December and I couldn’t make it to another event. This is definitely a last resort race for anyone who may be interested in participating. I really wouldn't use it as a way to set a new PB.

Anywho...my 2012 race season is officially over and I’m pretty damn happy with what I have accomplished and look forward to the bigger challenges I’ve outlined for 2013!

ON TO THE NEXT!

Merry Christmas and Happy Running!

                                                                Next post: 2012 Reflections

Running - Exactly How Has It Changed My Life?

When I initially began running, my intentions where to only use it as another source to get rid of unnecessary body fat. A new methodology to increase my cardio and speed up the weight loss. I was basically doing a few minutes per week on the treadmill and not focusing on any real distance/time goals. I've always been more into weight lifting and things of that nature and so running just complimented my strength training and other cardio routines. It wasn't until around August of 2011 that I started using it as a way to "run away" from an emotional clusterfuck. [To this day, I still don't know what went wrong. But hey, shit happens and people will disappoint].

There are many situations that will occur along the way that we have to deal with. Death, love loss, stress, etc., are all unfortunate but common circumstances of this thing called life. How we survive these life situations, depends on how we as human beings choose to deal with them. Running became my solution.

Honestly, running has been my outlet for many reasons. Not just to battle the grief demons that manifested and never wanted to leave after my grandmother passed away in 2008, or to get me out of a depressive slump resulting from a major heart break I experienced back in 2011, but to allow me to see how much of a strong and determined individual I really am inside.

I've been through a lot of undesirable situations in my life that could have easily broken me down to nothingness, but resiliency seems to be intwined in the very fabric of my being. I just didn't realize how resilient I could be until I started taking this running thing a bit more seriously this past year. It's given me an entirely new perspective when it comes to life and how I should move forward past those things that are just unfortunate barriers along this life's journey. Things become more clear and you're able to find an inner peace that you didn't know existed. You begin to search for meaning and understanding beyond the common ordinary explanations. I tried to follow that path previously, but I guess I needed to find the real me inside that was ready to travel that road. Running helped me get to that destination.

I guess if you've never ran for "fun" then you probably have no idea what the hell I'm talking about. And that's cool. It's not really my intention to make you understand the nature of it, but to only help you understand how it has become a part of me and has altered my existence. Because for me, it really has changed who I am... and it's for the better.

Happy Running!

Next Post: Half Marathon #5 Race Report

So I Registered For My First Marathon...

Yep! You read that correctly! I took the plunge yesterday and registered for my first 26.2 mile race. Am I going crazy? Probably. LOL! But, I couldn't resist the urge to step up my game since I love a challenge and proving to myself that I can do anything that I set my mind to do. And believe me. This will definitely be a true test of mental and physical prowess as the day gets closer.

Oh? When and where you ask? Well, I decided to change my original plan, which was to run the half marathon portion of the Anthem Richmond Marathon in Richmond Virginia. I am currently a member of the National Black Marathoners Association (NBMA) and our 8th annual group meet/conference will be held at this particular race event on November 16, 2013. The trip was a scheduled event that I was looking forward to attending anyway. I just bumped my race plans up a bit.

For a few months now, I've been contemplating when and where I would run my first marathon someday. I'm not a huge fan of crowded races and wanted something a bit smaller and as close to home as can be without it being in my backyard. Several members ran Richmond this past weekend and had a lot of great things to say about the race. I figured this would be a great fit for me and I won't have to worry about that feeling of "being alone out there" which could happen while running my first marathon. I will be amongst my NBMA family so I'm confident I won't have those moments. There will also be a lot of NBMA members doing this as their first 26.2 and that's a plus as well. I've read more negative experiences when runners choose large scale races as their first event; especially if running it alone. The crowds can be overwhelming and adding that to an already intimidating feat, can be cause for a terrible experience.

So, for the next year I'll work on my weight loss goals, total body strength, and following a novice marathon training program to prepare me for this endeavor. I'll also continue to seek advice from some of my good friends from the Runner's World Online forums/facebook page and NBMA. This will not be about time. My main objective is to run this race comfortably and remain injury free so that I can finish strong. Hopefully enjoying the experience enough to run a second marathon another day. I really don't want this to be a "one and done" moment. Running has changed my life in so many ways over the last year and a half. I went through a difficult time (heartbreak) and really needed to find something to keep me going. I'm glad to be on this journey and look forward to all the adventures coming my way.

By the way! Keep an eye out for my blog posts in the near future. I'll be documenting my quest for the 26.2 mile marker once my official training begins in July! Wish me luck!

Happy Running!

Next blog post: Running - Exactly How Has It Changed My Life?