I woke up early like I always do. I did have the jitters since I hadn't ran "the distance" in several months. But I blared some Avicci and danced my ass off while getting ready. Its totally normal to do this at 4am before a race, right? Yeah, I get pretty weird with it and I have accepted it..
After some dancing I downed my red bull and scarfed down my sun butter and Ezekiel bread sandwich (my breakfast of choice before any race) and I felt pretty damn good. Am I a genius or what? We didn't have a fridge in our room and I HAD to have cold reb bull in the morning...
The race started at the same exact place where you picked up your bib-no early morning mystery. There were maybe a couple thousand people. I had room to easily stretch and move around. It wasn't one of those races where you had to stand there for 15+ minutes for your corral to march up.
It was really perfect out- temperature, everything. The race started promptly and the corrals moved fast. Within minutes I was on the road running.
I planned on doing the Galloway Method as that was what I was doing while helping out with the track club (the majority of my distance runs) but once I got out there I felt so, so good and I decided to just go with the flow and jog until I
Dude, this course.
It was AMAZING.
It was absolutely gorgeous. It was still dusk and the Chattanooga River was in sight, and you could see the city dimly lit up.
I only had my phone with me and these photos just don't do it justice but seriously... breathtaking.
"Didn't need a telescope to see where I was going..."
The course support was awesome. I want to say they had aide stations every mile and at almost every station they had gu. As far as cheering people no, there weren't many but I've never really ran a race with the infamous cheering crowds and really for this race you so didn't need a crowd to get you through it. The race, the surroundings, the natural vibe was enough.
I jogged for a long while. Since it was a small race I knew they wouldn't be recording our times for the 5k,10k, etc. Because of this and my curiosity, I set my phone's timer at the start and every time I reached a mile marker (which was for every mile). I took a screen shot of the timer on my phone. At one point I made it down to the 10 (something seconds) miles. It was a very flat rather, cool area and I just felt great.
I had only one gu and early on (around mile 6) as I wanted to make sure I got the nutrition in my system before I ended the run. Why did I take it so late in the game for all these years?
Everything was great again, I was totally in my zone. I actually remember thinking how much I LOVED running halfs.
I mean come on...
Not long after this pretty view you had a nice climb. Nothing bad but I was feeling a little fatigued and I do remember walking up it, I recall it being sharp too. Around this time I realized something wasn't right. My body can pretty much tell when I ran a mile and I hadn't seen a mile marker in a while and they had been out at every single mile. I knew something wasn't right either I DRASTICALLY slowed down and didn't know it or something was jacked up.
And I was right.
The mile markers were off. I don't remember which mile it was but lets say mile 10 lasted 2 miles and mile 11 like nothing. Although it wasn't a huge deal it was enough to make me lose my concentration. This would have seriously pissed me off if I was running the marathon... luckily I wasn't ;)
The next mile or so was tough. At that point I felt the bottom of my feet hurt.
Damn fasciitis.
I found myself pretty much walking. I remember this bridge clearly and not just because its beauty.
I remember telling myself your time is awesome just jog the bridge and run down the street and you're home free.
Nope. Couldn't do it.
I have made my mistakes in running and there was no way in hell I was going to run if it made my feet hurt. So I pretty much powerwalked it and I didn't feel pained.
I finished at 2:28.
Not bad for my first race in around 6 months but that little voice in my head taunted me for a second with the what if you hadn't stopped to walk...
Meh, that voice is a bitch...
I finshed the race and grabbed my medal.
It was really nice.
Thick too. I always appreciate a good medal!
They also handed me a warm bottle of water but... it said 7 Bridges Marathon, ok call me a persnickety but I DID NOT run a marathon therefore, I should not have a bottle that says it.
RESPECT THE 26.2
They did not offer anything to you once the race ended no nanners, no bagels. What did they offer was a spaghetti breakfast. It was $10 bucks and I saw lots of people eating but it did not appeal to me. I prefer a nice carb (bagel), maybe some sugar (piece of chocolate) then after I cool down a good protein packed meal. But that's just me, that's what my body craves.
Since there wasn't any post race nutrition except the spaghetti we mosied right on out.
So heres what I think...
It was an AMAZING race. Yes, there were a couple of bumps but the t-shirt, the packet pick up, the scenery, the course support were subperb. I would totally run this race again. This IS now my favorite half marathon course and I totally recommend it to both noobs and and non noobs :)
Awesome half marathon....not so awesome marathon :) The course gets wicked boring after the split off. I LOVED the half though. Great job ;)
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