Charlotte Racefest Half Marathon Recap

The weather was great this morning for racing — sunny and relatively cool. We headed to the race site around 6:45, with a stop at David’s apartment to pick him up. David is less of a morning person than anyone I know. “This is stupid,” he grumbled as he laced up his shoes. “But it will feel so good when you finish!” I said cheerfully. I was in a very good mood.
This was my slowest half marathon ever, but it was also probably the most fun. I love running in Charlotte, especially at this time of year when the trees are all blooming and everything smells fresh and clean and green. I was also very excited to be running with my family — my sister, brother, and brother-in-law. Though Katie and Joel (and Katie’s friend Jennifer) took off at the start and I never saw them again until the finish, David and I ran together the whole way. That was pretty much how I expected things to go.
Katie, Joel, David and Jennifer were all making their half marathon debuts. (This was my 7th overall, and 4th of 2007.) Katie and Joel’s training went well, and fast. Katie and Jennifer finished in just under 2:06, with Joel finishing just ahead of that in 2:04. Wow! What a great half marathon for them!
David’s training didn’t go quite as well as he’d hoped. This was his first road race ever and first time doing a long distance, but he’s been running 3-4 miles a few times a week for years. (Last year he ran 500 miles.) He had some problems with leg pain on his long runs, and said he was horrible at pacing himself. He did a 10-miler, but said he had to walk a lot of the second half. So our goal was to run steady for as long as we could, with me helping him control his pace, and then just do whatever was necessary to finish. His secondary goal was to average 12:00 miles or less (finish under 2:37).
We ran very well and very consistently through the halfway point. As soon as we hit the first hill and I saw how hard I was huffing and puffing to get up the stupid thing, I knew there was no chance of me PRing anyway! 🙂 We walked through the water stations. The biggest and longest hill came right after the mile 7 marker, and though we ran up half of it, we ended up walking up the second half. Just after we’d started running again, we saw Mom and Carter waiting to cheer for us.
David started to get tired towards the end, but he did far better than I did at the end of my Half Ironman! For the last 4 miles we walked up the hills and ran the flats and downhills. Heck, I was pretty darn tired too — the rolling hills are so totally different from anything I run on anywhere in Houston.
We’d just finished walking up the last big hill and had just over half a mile to go when I glanced at my watch and saw 2:24. “Come on David,” I said. “If we run the rest of the way, we can finish under 2:30!” We started running again, and sped up as we got closer to the finish line. David beat me by a few steps in the final sprint. We crossed in 2:30:01 by my watch — if it weren’t for the upward slope of the final tenth of a mile, we’d have totally saved that lousy extra second.
Katie and Joel and Jennifer, along with Mom and Carter, met us at the finish line and we got a good photo of everyone with their medals. I’m happy to report that everyone had fun and had a good race. Four newly minted half marathoners! Hooray!
Mile 1 – 10:43
Mile 2 – 10:43
Mile 3 – 11:16 (water stop)
Mile 4 – 10:33
Mile 5 – 10:39
Mile 6 – 11:17 (water stop)
Mile 7 – 10:47
Mile 8 – 11:53 (biggest hill)
Mile 9 – 10:53
Mile 10 – 12:40
Mile 11 – 12:39
Mile 12 – 12:38
Mile 13 – 12:20
Final 0.1 – 0:59
Pictures to come later today if I can figure out how to get them off the flash card via the printer. Otherwise they’ll have to wait until I get back to Houston and my card reader.