Half Marathon Race Recap

Meia Maratona das Pontes (Half Marathon of the Bridges)

February 24, 2013

Carbo loading the night before the race-Gus is skeptical

Fans need pasta too

Things got off to a ridiculously early start for this half marathon. Even though the start was at 7:30, we were supposed to get there before 6:30 to pick up our race chips so my ride came at 6! Of course we were there in plenty of time and ended up standing around with the other Americans for over an hour just waiting for the race to start. I also spent a fair amount of time waiting in the bathroom line-there were portapotties too but I decided it was worth it to wait for a real bathroom!

My race day outfit 

We also checked out all the other runners, there were about 1500 people running so not a huge group. One big difference between running races in Brazil and America is that most of the runners here wear the race shirt in the race. In America that's considered poor form because you don't really earn the shirt until you finish the race. I don't know why people like to wear the race shirts here but they always do. The shirts for this race were black which makes absolutely no sense for a race run in the hot Brazilian sun. There were also a lot of people sporting knee high compression socks, preferably in neon bright colors-it seems to be the trend this year. So lots of Brazilians squeezed into tight socks and black t-shirts and ready to run!

At about 7:20 we wandered over to the start and milled around for a little bit, fully expecting it to be late like everything else here. I forgot to eat my pre-race GU and tried to get a signal for my Garmin GPS watch. Finally at 7:30 the crowd surged forward and we were off! (No countdown or gun or anything that I heard, just start running). We started on the first bridge, the Costa e Silva, and they had a couple lanes blocked off for the start which was good because people were going so slowly! I was weaving in and out for the first half mile which also happened to be up the biggest hill.
                                               
Once we got up the hill and were cruising down the road, I started looking for my fans. Soon enough I spotted Gus on Matt's shoulders and Eleanor banging her toy drum! It was fun to see them so early on! Matt told me later that Eleanor got so excited she banged right through the drum and broke it! My kids are usually the only kids out cheering along a race so they get lots of smiles from people and runners even recognize me as the Go Mom Go lady (from their sign).

My fans are ready to cheer!

Go runners go!

I saw that the first mile was a little slow, 8:30, so I tried to concentrate on picking up the pace and finding my groove. My shirt was bugging me because it kept rolling up (rookie mistake to wear a new shirt in a race) so I tucked it in and resigned myself to no face wiping. We looped around and hit the first water stop around mile 2 and it felt great to pour water over my head, I was already getting sweaty! At the races here they hand out covered cups that I just punch a hole in and drink. I love them because they don't splash all over me when I attempt to run and drink at the same time.

Besides the compression socks and black t-shirts, there were a bunch of people with running cameras in this race. I even passed one guy who was filming the run using a camera on the top of his head while his friend biked along next to him and filmed him. Another woman had a camera on a metal arm that let her film herself while she was running. Too much!
                                                       
The road down to the JK bridge was all downhill so I tried to relax and enjoy the run. My miles were under 8 minutes so I was feeling good. As I ran across the bridge, I really felt strong and I tried to relax and take in the scenery and just enjoy the moment. I passed a woman I had run with at another half marathon so that made me feel strong. As I got to the end of the bridge, I saw the Gatorade station and grabbed some of that and then some water to eat my GU gel. It was a little tricky trying to eat it while running up a hill but it gave me something else to think about besides the hill.

Coach BB was supposed to meet me on that hill but I didn't see her so I figured she was playing some kind of mind game to prove to me I could run up the hill myself. She wasn't-she had missed me at our meeting place-but it worked because I made it up and over and then saw Matt and the kids. They were cheering really loudly and had some other families with them so I got lots of high fives and smiles. It was a good boost!

The kids with the JK Bridge in the background

Coach BB  was waiting for me at the bottom of the next hill and jumped in to run up it with me. She told me I wasn't pushing myself hard enough if I could talk so much to her and to keep the pace up. I knew she was right and that I had the energy in me to start running faster but I didn't, I don't know why. After she left me I passed by our street and then hit the 5K left to go mark. I started eating one clif shot block (margarita flavor!) at each mile at this point. I don't know if it helped at all but it didn't make me gag or throw up so that's something. I was hoping the extra salt in them would be good for me with all the sweating I was doing.
                                                   
Right after that was another hill but I didn't stress it. It was much different from last year when I slowed to a crawl and barely made it over! Then there was a flat section  for about a mile and people were just passing me left and right, including one guy who was grunting on every exhale. He sounded like Monica Seles! I'm also sad to say I got passed by a bikini lady on this stretch AGAIN! Actually it was more like a sports bra but I let her go and that shows you what kind of mindset I was in. I knew that I wasn't running as fast as I could and I didn't push myself. I don't know why but I just didn't feel the fire under my feet.

Eleanor and Gus at the finish, grumpy faces on!

Eleanor shows off her clapper

So I cruised in the last couple miles but turned it up a little for the finish. And looked at my watch to see...drumroll..1:50!!! The exact same time as last year! Ugh. I was really pissed and felt very frustrated, like all my work and improvement over the past year were for nothing. I walked through the gauntlet to hand in my chip and get my medal and was about to cry. But I stopped myself because it was MY OWN FAULT. What do I have to cry for? It's not like I got injured or someone tripped me or I didn't drink enough water. I just didn't try hard enough. And so I got a time that wasn't any better than last year. End of story.

A smile and a wave for the fans! It's done!

                         
Now I've moved on-onward and upward! I'm taking it easy for the next couple of weeks, including at least 5 days of no running. It's a recharge of my batteries before really digging into marathon training!

Here are the official results: My chip time was 1:51 on the dot, I came in 19th out of all the women and I was 1st out of women ages 35-39! I'll take that as my victory for the day!

Nro	Nome	Modalidade	Categoria	Tempo	Pace	TEMPO LIQUIDO	RANKCAT	RANKTOT	RANKSEX
503	HEATHER MCNEMAR	21K	F3539	1:51:59.4	05:17	1:51:00.6	1	362	19