Houston Half Race Report

A.K.A. Worst. Half. EVAR.

Not the race or the organization or anything. Just for me. This seriously sucked.

I got sick on Thursday after the 10 Miler. I had actually been running at an elevated body temp since Monday after the 10 miler, but I didn't feel bad until Thursday. When I started feeling like absolute shit. Then I started running around a 100 degree fever. I basically layed around all weekend, totally skipping my long run on Saturday.

Came back to work, and running, on Monday, but still not feeling 100%. Really not even feeling 50%. I never went to the doctor, but Preston got sick the next week, and his doc thinks we had the "dreaded" H1N1. That actually wouldn't surprise me, since what I had was worse than a cold, but better than the flu.

Annyways, I slowly felt better all week leading up to the Half. I ran 3 on Monday, 6 on Tuesday, and then unfortunately skipped Thursday due to pounding rain. I thought about making it up witha short 3 on Friday, but then figured the rest coming off the sickness would do me good.

Now, to the race report.

I got downtown in plenty of time this year, and headed over to the start line. The temp at my house was a pleasant-for-running 55, but downtown it was closer to 65. Mistake 1: wore capri tights instead of shorts.

I headed to the portacans. I have to compliment the organization at this race: there were extra packages of toilet paper outside every 3rd or 4th can, and I actually saw volunteers later arriving with further toilet paper reinforcements!

With about 10 minutes to go, I lined up. I thought the finish line was the start line, so I moved back and back.

Turns out that the start line was past the finish line, so I started waaaaaay too far back. Mistake 2. I passed *hundreds* of people in the first 2 miles, even though I was only running a 10:30ish pace.

I bypassed the first aid station which is only about half a mile into the race, but I diligently walked through every remaining aid station, always choosing Gatorade, except at 5 and 9 when I took a Honey Stinger with water.

I felt like crap from the very beginning. That 10:30 pace that was passing so many people didn't feel easy to me as it should have. I comforted myself that I didn't feel that great in the Ten for Texas, but after 2 I felt awesome.

So I kept gutting it out, running, walking only the aid stations. But I never felt any better.

I finished the first loop in that fashion and headed out for the second. Sometime around 6 miles I looked down and realized I had been running for an hour! Shortly after that I passed the 10K mark (1:02ish), and then soon after that, the halfway point/relay handoff. 1:06ish. I was on PR pace if I could keep it up or negative split, but I knew then that there would be no PR. I was already tanking at the halfway point. As I ran by it I jealously thought of my friend who was only running the relay. I kept running because of the crowd, but as soon as I rounded the apex of the loop and turned for home a second time, I was taking my first unauthorized walk break.

From there, it is a story of more and more walking, and less and less running.

Saw Preston on my way out on the 3rd loop. Told him I felt like crap, and he said, well, just walk if you have to.

Have to I did, and walk I did. A lot.

Final time: 2:31:23
First half: 1:09:10
Second half: 1:22:14

I want to talk about how I felt, and why. I felt awful, put simply. I felt slow. I felt like you feel when you sprint, and you reach your breaking point, and you simply have to slow down. Only I wasn't sprinting. I felt like my chest was tight, like I couldn't breathe as deeply as I usually do. I felt hot. I felt tired. I felt like there were entirely too many hills. I felt like I wanted to quit.

I didn't quit. I am calling it a "good mental training day". But I am bothered by the whole thing. I can't identify one cause or a major cause for this terrible performance. The only thing I can think of is that it was a combination of the heat, the hills, my clothing, my sickness...? Whatever it was, it was super lame.

And to add injury to insult, I chafed. On my ass.