Cap City Half Marathon 2008 Race Report

Today I ran with a friend during her first half marathon. She’d joined the Columbus Running Company’s training program, although we ended up running many of her long runs together (rather than her going out to run with them). A couple weeks ago she’d suffered an injury, and a doctor’s visit on Tuesday confirmed she was ok to run the race, but only to run a single mile in the week leading up to it. I was glad the doctor had given her the ok, but I was a bit nervous that her first half marathon experience wouldn’t be a positive one.

Yesterday, several of us volunteered at the Expo, and then went for dinner. At the Expo and then at dinner, I started to get the sense Suzanne was a bit nervous about the run. She bought new socks, started asking questions about what to wear, how to fuel, etc. I did my best to offer all the advice I could, and try to ease her concerns.

A few months ago, I’d offered to run the race with her, so I became the pacer/gu-dispenser. A few months ago Suzanne had mentioned wanting to run an 11min pace, but I wasn’t sure how that would go, given her recent injury (tendonitis).

M01: 10:31
M02: 10:37

there weren’t a ton of water stops on the course, probably about every two miles or so. They still didn’t have enough volunteers (or maybe prep time?) and we often had to pour our own or wait for water to be poured for us.

M03: 10:31
M04: 10:25

Suzanne’s first gu stop.

M05: 10:47
M06: 10:48
M07: 10:31
M08: 10:25
M09: 12:37

On mile 9 we were headed east in a boring part of the course. For the first time, I felt Suzanne start to slow a bit. We also both decided to give the port-a-potties a try. Lastly, we had to stop for water, and Suzanne had her second gu (of 2).

M10: 10:40
M11: 11:18

Other than the mile where we stopped this was the first time we clocked over an 11 min mile. I realized that this was “no-man’s land” for her, she’d never run beyond 10 miles in training. I pointed this out to Suzanne, and she said “it’s probably not getting better than this”. She said her stomach was hurting a bit. I told her I understood, but I aimed for us to at least pull in sub-11.

M12: 10:25

Evidently it worked! I don’t know if it was the gu (later, Suzanne said she was starting to feel weak in mile 9), or the fact we were on the homestretch back towards the finish line, but soon enough I felt Suzanne starting to pick up the pace again. I didn’t tell her our speed, I was just glad to see that she was going to finish strong. It was also at this time that it hit me: we had run the whole time. Four months previously, Suzanne had taken walk breaks after two miles. Two weeks previously, she’d suffered an injury. Yet here she was, meeting her goals and holding it together as a very consistent run. I was really impressed!

M13: 9:56

I didn’t even tell her we broke the 10 minute mile pace here. I was just grinning because when someone can finish strong like this, you know they’re going to have positive memories. At the final mile marker, I told Suzanne “no more talking, push it in. Get there!” (or something similarily stupid but intended to be motivational). And she did! She picked it up and we cruised into the finish.

.1: 9:43 pace

Chip time: 2:22:32/2:22:33 – she beat me!

Through the race, my watch had beeped a bit before each mile marker. I had thought perhaps I’d set it to start at the incorrect mat (there were three at the start). In the end, my watch clocked the distance at 13.31. I know that the distance after the official 13 mile marker and the finish line definitely seemed longer than .1. To look at the pace my watch was clocking, we were an overall 10:43 pace, but if the distance is only 13.1, it was 10:57. Still the sub-11 pace Suzanne was shooting for, but naturally I’d like to think we were at the faster pace. Suzanne also hit an all-new max heart rate (197) in the final sprint. And she didn’t die! 🙂

Overall, it was a decent race. The pizza at the end was fantastic! Other than having to pour our own drinks (!), I thought the race was pretty well organized. I’ll admit I was a bit nervous about Suzanne having a positive experience, but I think it went pretty well. She was quickly talking about the October half, so we may have a convert in our midst!