Womens Half Marathon-Nashville-Sep 22, 2012

 

 

This was the 3^rd Annual Nashville Women’s Half Marathon which is sponsored by Womens Running Magazine, Lady Speedstick, and Publix, and included a 5k as well as half marathon. There were about 3000 half marathoners (which yes, legally allows men, which about 90 of them participated) and about 550 5kers. The race started and finished downtown at the Music City Hall of Fame with an ‘after party’ at the Music Star walk park. The course took us from downtown to West End through the Centennial Park, which I didn’t even realize until I looked at the pictures that we went right by the Pantheon. It was a beautiful course all n all. We ran though a lot of residential, down Music Row, and down Honky Tonk Row. Was a good way to see Nashville.

When I started telling people I was racing Nashville, I was warned repeatedly of how difficult the course is because of the hills. I didn’t really pay attention to course maps when I signed up for all the races this year. I have found myself in hill hell lately. This is race 4 out of the 6 past races that are on hills. Im anticipating next months Chattanooga to be the same, as there are 4 bridges to cross!

The Womens Half website promised that this years course would be flatter and easier. “We will see” I told myself. At least I was mentally prepared now and not going to be surprised. And I was somewhat physically prepared, if you consider 26 miles of hill training in 2 months preparation for this Florida gal! I prepared myself to go into this one, not quite PRing, but being able to handle it well, or at least better than the last 2 hill races.

I took the hour and half flight on Friday morning, arriving to Nashville fairly early. I found it quite funny as my hotel ended up being on the biggest hill of the city!

The Expo was nothing spectacular. The “goody bag,” which is basically like a reusable grocery bag from Publix, was of good quality and will definitely get future use. The race tshirt was disappointing, as it was a very generic design, was white of all colors, and for some reason seems to wrinkle very easily.  I have never seen a ‘tech’ shirt wrinkle so much. The prices, as always, for the souvenir race gear was ridiculously over priced. The standard vendors were there. Bondi was the only new one I have never seen, and am quite interested in giving them a try once I get some spare cash. The good thing about the Expo was there were 2 breast cancer vendors. SGK booth was busy, so I chatted with the local high risk clinic. There was also giveaway by Dr Scholl’s, but unfortunately even after spending 10 minutes talking with one of the Dr Scholls volunteers, I still was not told of. I instead had to ask one of the people in line what was going on. They gave away free personalized head bands just for trying on their inserts. Was cute, but I unfortunately did not have sneakers, nor socks (felt like dressing up and was in heels), so passed on the giveaway.

Since the Expo didn’t take much time, I went downtown to explore and have lunch. Was excited to celebrate in the Honky Tonk bars after the race!

There wasn’t much to do downtown if you weren’t drinking, so I just went back to the hotel to prepare for the morning. In the evening I headed over to the Farmers Night Market.  Music and wine was very tempting, but I just took a quick stroll and then made my way over to the State Capital building that was located on a big hill, where I got to lay in the grass and watch the sunset.

Still full from lunch, I actually ended up skipping dinner and just called it a night.

I had a few blocks to walk to start, so I headed out by 6am for the 7am start. I had coffee and a small pbj sammie. I still had no appetite, which is actually normal for me race morning.

Subaru had a VIP area set up for those that test drove a vehicle the weeks before the race. It was nice to not have to wait in line for a porta potty!

I passed out the pink ribbon bracelets as usual, but for some reason I was having a hard time interacting with people. I even had one girl completely ignore me. After I handed all her friends bracelets and spoke with them, she wouldn’t even look up from her phone and just said No. I don’t know why, but I kinda took it personal. I then had a guy ask me ‘don’t you think you are over dressed?’ I was disappointed and shocked as I tried to stumble out words to make him understand my mission. It didn’t work.

I definitely wasn’t getting pumped up for this race. There were lots of coordinated outfits between friends. Lots of tutus, even men in tutus. And to my surprise lots of makeup and curled hair. Even though I travel and do most of my races alone, I usually have no problems meeting people and feeling like Ive done something. But today I was feeling alone.

I found a patch of grass and did some yoga stretching to try to clear my mind. I tried to remember the motivational quotes that I had found the week before the race. One of them being “Inhale love, Exhale Hate”. I was definitely being tested here. I tried to push all negativity out of my head and tried to stay positive. That is when I got a couple shout outs from friends back home, which put me into a little better mood. I knew I had support back home.

Other quotes of the week were “I will turn my weakness into Strength” and “Don’t waste the downhills” and “Stare Fear in its Face.” I was saving those for the hills that I knew would want to take me down.

I was in Coral 2, but didn’t see a 2:30 pacer. Which was fine, I just placed myself with 2:15, he was a cutie anyways.

We were soon off, and shortly after we were going uphill….what?! What happened to easier, flatter course? Within the first mile and half, we had already tackled two pretty good size hills. I made myself take it easy and go slow up the hills. I wanted to try to see how far I could go without doing the run/walk method. To my surprise, I actually made it past mile 6 before I started doing the wogging (well, I did walk at the drink tables), which has me feeling really good for some upcoming flat races in Nov, Dec, Jan!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the main reason I even started walking at this time was because I had glanced down at my Garmin and it was shut off!! I managed to get it back on, but didn’t know how much distance had passed. A few moments later, it was off again. WTH? I knew I had fully charged it, so did not know what was going on. I was so frustrated. I lost focus and started messing with it. Then just decided to take it off.  I wanted to toss it to the curb, but instead put it on my energy belt.

I then started wondering what it would be like if I ran a half without a watch. I mean, I pretty much did in April at the Tour de Pain Extreme (the other time my Garmin decided to die, but I didn’t realize you could Reset it). But what if I did it on purpose and was mentally prepared to run without any timing/pacing mechanism. For the past few weeks I have been training without the Garmin, of course those have been shorter distances, but still. I think back to when I used to wog with the alerts (walk a minute, jog a minute). Every minute an alert would go off and give me permission to walk. Then the first time I decided not to use the alerts and see how far I could run without stopping, I ran 6 miles!! So, maybe I’m being held back again?

I no longer run with alerts, but I do constantly check my pace. If I am running too fast, I slow down. If I am running too slow, I try to pick up. And sometimes I just find myself getting all mentally stressed out because I am looking at numbers, and trying to do recalculations constantly, and saying things like “if I walk so many more seconds, I can make them up here” or “you’re such a whimp, why are you walking this whole minute?” But I never just ‘feel my run.’  What if I went all out and just put myself out on the line? No watch. No times. No pace. Just listening to my body. Push it, however fast or slow I go, until I just needed a quick break, and don’t worry about how long or short that walk break is, and then just GO. Would it make a difference? Would I be any better than what I am allowing myself to be? Am I currently holding myself back? I think I might try it. Maybe Chattanooga. Maybe wait for the flat races this winter.

So back to the race…My motto for this race was “Stare fear in its face”. I’m sure I may have seen it somewhere, but it kinda just stuck with me. I have a love-hate relationship with hills. When I started running, I actually loved them. I was able to push myself through them and felt so powerful afterwards. But then (Im not sure when) I started to despise them. Maybe it was after I started paying more attention to my times, and trying to PR and realizing they are the devil and the ones that are killing my PR. Lol.

When I run hills, I look down. I don’t want to see how much further I have to go to get to the top.... How much more torture I am going to be put through. It makes me want to just stop in my tracks. So I put my head down, I lean into the hill, and I truck my way along. Not this time. I was going to “Stare fear in its face.” You won’t scare me hill! I will make you my B!t@h! And I did. I ran up every single hill and kept my head held high.

I also have a bad habit of hating straight-aways. (remind me again why I run?...if I hate almost everything about it?!). They seem so stinkin far! And it seems like you are not getting any closer. So again, when there is a long straightaway, I put my head down. I look to the left, I look to the right. I try not to look ahead. Not this time. I was going to “Stare fear in its face.” You won’t scare me straight-away! You know why? Because I know I can go your distance! I’ve done it before! And I will do it again!

About mile 5-7 or so was my favorite part of the race. Where the fast runners had already reached the turn around point and were running straight towards you. It is fun to see how strong, powerful, and fast these women are. I dream of one day being that fast.

After mile 6, it was mostly downhill. I started feeling really good and picked up the pace. I took a GU at mile 9 and was owning the last few miles!

Support wise, the event was well manned. No problems with water stations. There seemed to be enough porta potties. The event advertised ‘entertainment on course’, however, there were very few bands, and really only 1 good one. That was disappointing with it being Music City and all. There was an ok amount of spectators on the sidelines. But I have to admit this was the first race I had been in where I (as well as a large amount of other runners, as I was about mid-pack) would run by and not one person standing there were cheer out for us, or even say one word. A few times I almost wanted to cheer to THEM!

The ‘After Party’ celebration was nothing to write home about. It was one of the very few races that I have done that had no alcohol what so ever after the race. They had a band, but the sound system was not good at all. You could barely hear over at the VIP area. Subaru VIP had an excellent line up of breakfast….sammies, fruit, salad, bagels, pretzels, bars, and a chocolate fondue station with pastries, crispy treats, more fruit! They had a massage area with free massages (too bad it was unorganized and names were being skipped and crossed off –including mine). I guess they were not expecting as many people that showed up to VIP, as there were only 2 masseuses and about 4 or more pages of names! If it wasn’t for the VIP area, I would have been disappointed. I had an extra ticket, as Subaru gave you two tickets, so handed mine to a woman walking around by herself.

The medal for the race is pretty good. It is a pretty good size and has a detachable charm if you want to wear as a necklace.

I spent the rest of the day at the Southern Ground Music Festival down by the Riverfront. Was a beautiful afternoon for some great live music and celebrating my 20^th half marathon!

The rest of the weekend included Chicken n Waffles for celebratory breakfast the next day and some Honky Tonk hopping on Broadway, topped off with a concert by Carrie Underwood! Nashville you did me well!

13.1-2:34:56