Cincy Half Marathon

So, this weekend I ran the Cincinnati Half Marathon, which was sponsored by Fleet Feet.

The whole thing was billed as a "no-frills" half marathon. According to the website this meant that you only pay for the shirt if you want it and there would be no entertainment on the course so that they could keep the costs down for registration. Now I also expected this to mean no medals, no Gatorade, no GU and minimal mileage markings on the course, but they had all of those! Pretty good for a "no-frills" half marathon.

I've been pretty lax on training for this. In fact, the goal when I found out our moving timing was to train for the Columbus Marathon (which was this Sunday). I was totally on track with my training and everything all summer, despite the fact that I had a million other things going on in my life. But of course, I underestimated the toll that moving would take on my free time. And then I lost a weekend of training to traveling, to be on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. After that, I figured that it was NOT a good idea to do the marathon and signed up for this half instead.

Good thing, because in between then (which was in August) and this weekend I've gotten a total of three runs in... a five miler with the stroller in Mt. Adams (ugh), a really boring 6 miler in Miami Meadows park around a 1.3 mile loop and a 10-miler at Lunken Park last weekend.

So, I was not going into this half with any high-expectations for a PR. But I was happy that the temperatures were going to be in the 40s and the course was going to be flat. I was also happy that I would have my cheering squad with me (Bill and Liam, of course).

I also have been reading Born to Run, so I was concentrating on just having fun and enjoying the run while staying light on my feet. I wasn't going to worry too much about time.

I started the race conservatively, but it seemed like it was taking FOREVER to get to the mile markers. I think this is because I have been slacking on my training, because I noticed this on my 10 miler last week too. I guess this also happens to me on flat courses. I think it's just something about the course having no elevation variation. Uh, it could also be that my pace was around an 11:00 mile. I also seemed to have a couple of songs in my head on a neverending loop, which was actually good because it started making the time go by more quickly. (Simon and Garfunkel's "The Only Living Boy in New York" and Billy Joel's "Root Beer Rag"...don't ask).

I saw Bill and Liam at around mile 4 one last time before heading into No Man's Land on Riverside, which was pretty much an out and back for the last 9 miles.

This is when it started to rain. Lightly. No big deal. I actually started to feel pretty good and picked up the pace.

Then it started to POUR. Like, I was SOAKED to the bone. I still felt pretty good, so I continued to pick it up...especially since I was starting to get COLD. I kind of wanted to just finish it quickly. When we got into International Friendship Park I knew there was less than a mile to go and I really picked it up. I was tired, of course and because my training was not exactly up to snuff I was sore, but I decided I was going to be pretty mad at myself if I didn't push it in.

I ended up with a 2:11, which is by far, not a good time for me, BUT I was still happy with it, considering that over the course of 13 miles I shaved my pace down significantly.

I also promised myself to kick up my training. No excuses now :)