4 Bridges Half Marathon

I know, I know I am a little late in the game to be telling you about the 4 Bridges Half Marathon but it was so good I couldn't keep it to myself.

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 wanted needed to stop.

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.

 

The Chainsmoker's "Kanye" came on right as I was looking over to take this picture. It totally fit the moment for some reason and just added a little something to my run.

"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 :)

 

4 Bridges Half Marathon- Pre Race Festivities

I ran my first half  around two months ago, at the time my longest distance since April. I wont lie, I was nervous. I questioned my training and my ability to run this distance. I described it as such to Mike, my marathon mind thought 13 miles was nothing but the fact I was not trained for a marathon and only trained for a half, I questioned my ability. I just didn't feel like I trained enough when in reality I trained plenty for a half.

Enough about that. We arrived the night before and stayed at the Chattanoogan.

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As I mentioned in an earlier post here, we got a sweet deal from hotwire and really liked the digs. As always, the plan is to go to bed early so we tried to take advantage of the beautiful fall day as soon as we got there.

The first thing we did was go get my bib. I don't know if it was because it was a Saturday or what but we drove in circles for some time before getting a spot.We had some trouble finding this location as the tent was set up near a "rhino statue" not a physical address.

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Not being from the area we walked searching for it. I guess it wasn't a big deal but it was annoying- control freak here I like to know what/when/where I am going. It took all of a minute to get my bib. There weren't a lot of people when I arrived. There was a small expo with headbands, belts etc they did have someone there taping up people which I thought was nice.

After the expo we walked around taking advantage of the beautiful fall day. Coolidge Park (where the rhino is housed) is really pretty.

Mike and I really like Chattanooga, like we could live there. It was so down to earth yet hip. We checked out a few local shops, went to a coffee shop and sipped hot cocoa. It was perfect.

Later, we went to the city's Oktoberfest which was free and right down the road.

They had the bands playing, kids dancing, a local market set up and of course beer. We hung out there for awhile sipping on our beer listening to the band. It was just nice.

Not long after we went back to the hotel and swam. I wanted to loosen up the muscles- I was pretty tense and nervous about the race so floating around in a pool sound really nice. The pool was sweet. it was indoors and no one was there. It was enclosed by windows and you could see the mountains. The pool had a nice glow from the lights in it that made it so inviting and it kinda reminded me of the water in Caribbean. After some floating around I hit up the steam room. I LOVE steam rooms, saunas etc. and they had both.

It was interesting though (sorry no photo) there was only room for one person! Literally the steam room had a one person seat. This was fine by me but it was just kinda funny to be sitting there in a (small) room. Literally the walls were built around your seat. Anyway, it was nice, I felt lose and its exactly what I needed.

For dinner we opted to stay in. We ate at one the restaurants in the hotel (I'm a big fan of protein the night before a race). Burgers and sweet potato fries for the win, followed by a cheesecake boxed for desert and movies in the room.

The day went smoothly, I felt like we took advantage of our time in Chatt without going overboard and actually experienced the city. We were able to go to sleep satisfied from our day, relaxed and tired. I easily fell into a deep slumber ready for the next day's race.