US Airforce Half Marathon

On Saturday I ran the US Air Force Half Marathon to help prepare for the full marathon I'm running in less than a month. It was...interesting. It was one of those things that you expected one thing and it didn't turn out the way you planned. It all started very early Saturday morning...

5:00 Ava woke up and I brought her in our bed. (She's been doing this all week. We're hoping it's just because she's had a cold. My alarm was set for 5:20 so I had 20 minutes to get her to fall back asleep before I got ready. Luckily, she fell asleep quickly. I got up, pumped a bottle for Grace, got dressed, ate peanut butter toast, and gathered all my belongings.

6:00 Jeff and I take off for Dayton. The race took place at the air force base.

7:00 We arrive and park in some random field. We wait for a shuttle bus and get taken to the start line. The full marathon started at 7:30. As we were walking to the start area we saw these cool "Top Gun" planes soar by and accelerate straight up. Jeff was more excited than I, but I have to admit it was a cool way to start a marathon. I found my Team in Training tent to sign in and began prerace rituals - jogging to warm up, stretching, and waiting for the port a potties for one last "mission". Then I kissed Jeff goodbye and went to find my pace group at the start line. Pace groups are these people who will run at a certain pace to get you to the finish line at a certain time. They help you stay on pace. Simple concept I know. I decided to join one because I was thinking about doing it for the full marathon as well. I joined Pacer Paul and about 20 others wanting to finish in 1 hour 50 minutes. We would keep a 8:24 pace.

7:30 The race begins.

7:50 I was ready to quit. I was literally kicking myself for not carrying my phone because how would I get ahold of Jeff to tell him I was done. The first mile and a half were straight uphill and my pace group was just flying up it! Then when the hill was finally over I saw a water stop. Great! Well I was literally the only person to stop and walk while I drank. I watched with saddness as my group ran farther and farther away. I figured I'd be able to catch up eventually but I felt like I was falling farther and farther behind.

Around mile 3 my thoughts were a random repeating mix of:

I hate running!

Why am I even doing this?
I'm going to quit.

I suck.

Then the road split and those doing the 10K went to the left while the half marathoners went to the right. My heart was torn. Should I just head back and face the embarassment of not finishing or should I keep going another 10 torturous miles??? Miserably, I went to the right.

Looking back now I think I know why I disliked this race so much. First of all, I knew there were going to be around 10,000 participants so I was expecting the event to be pretty big. It was so uneventful. There were no spectators. Ok there were probably a group of 4-6 people every mile or so. And even when there were spectators, they just stood there. They didn't clap or cheer. It was like they were just out to see what kind of freaks would be running a marathon. Also, I think I am better at starting out slower and then pushing later on in the race. Jeff calls me Lance Armstrong because I guess that's what he does. That's what I did during my 10K and I ended up constantly passing people which then sort of pumped me up and gave me motivation to keep going. During this race I took off fast only to be the one to slow down and get passed which only made me curse at myself and become discouraged. I just remember thinking that I had never felt more lonely in such a crowd of people.

Things started to change about half way through the race. The leaders of the half marathon (or maybe the full marathon?) began to start heading back. This gave me something to look at other than the man's sweaty back in front of me. Also as I was walking eating some energy blocks, a familiar body ran passed me...Lisa from Team in Training! Lisa's the fast girl who always runs with the guys at group runs. Even though she was speeding past me, I felt better knowing that there was someone closeby who knew me. Then at a turn around, I saw her again and shouted "Go Lisa! She waved. I felt so much better. Gosh writing this now makes me realize that it doesn't take much to encourage me. Anyway, I saw her again as well as two of my coaches later on in the race. Each time it was like a small burst of energy.

By this time, I was on the way back and now looking at all the people on the other side of the street who still had so much to go. Two thoughts encouraged me (this might sound mean): 1. I'm so glad I'm not back there! 2. I'm faster than them! I know I know...not very nice. But when you see that you're running much faster than so many men, it gets you fired up. Well at least it does for me.

At about 3 miles to the finish I see Lisa again. And she's not too far ahead of me. I remembered my 6 mile run at the begining of my training when I passed a man at the very end of my run and I knew I wanted to catch Lisa so badly. I was feeling good and running fast. And then I noticed that I had to go to the bathroom...real bad. During all my training, I've been also training myself not to go to the bathroom because it takes up precious time. So I pushed on like I always do. Unfortunetly I was using all my energy to run fast that I couldn't run and control my bladder. So now I'm having this conversation in my head:

Would anyone know that I peed my pants?

Is it worth it?

I have an hour ride home. Do I want to sit in pee all the way home?

Would it drip in my shoes?

I would love to tell you that I gave my all for this race and peed my pants so that I could finish in time...but I can't. During the last mile I could only jog and I had to stop 3 times just to hold in my pee. If this was the marathon, things would have been different but I reminded that this was just a practice race and it just wasn't worth it. Suprisingly, I still managed to cross the finish line in 1:52:32. I was bummed with my time at first, but when I think about how I was going to quit, I can't complain.