Like a lot of runners, Maureen and I seem to like to combine races
and vacations together. This trip was no different, we decided last
winter to visit her cousin's Kerry's family in Columbia, Tennessee, an hour
south of Nashville, and combine the trip with the Country Music
Half-Marathon. We also somehow decided it was a good idea to drive instead of fly, so on
Wednesday after dinner we loaded our luggage and the puppies into the
Subaru and headed east. The car trip was pretty uneventful as we drove
through Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The only surprising
thing was how close to the Mountain time / Central time border we lived,
apparently the easternmost part of Colorado is actually in the Central
time zone, which we passed about an hour or so into our drive.
We
arrived at Maureen's cousin's house on Thursday afternoon, and after we
settled in I went for a quick shakeout run. It's funny how with sleeping
about 2 hours in the last 30+ hours I still run faster at sea level at
the same effort than I do back at home at 6200 feet altitude. Shortly
after we went out for a nice dinner and then fell asleep shortly after
we got back.
When we woke up on Friday we went out for a
short run and then headed to the expo to grab our race packets. I also
took a quick look at the seeded runners list to see what kind of
competition there would be for Scott and I. Not that he needed the help,
but Scott was the only runner with an elite bib in the full marathon
(lucky bastard!) and I had Ryan Sheehan and Roosevelt Cook seeded ahead
of me. This was going to be a bit more trouble than I was expecting, but
with my first week under 110 miles since the Shamrock Shuffle and a bit
more pop in my legs I was feeling fairly confident. We went home and
relaxed for the rest of the day, then fell asleep shortly after dinner.
We
woke up early on race day and headed out in the rain. Traffic wasn't
too bad until we got pretty close to Nashville. When I got my elite
athlete bib the day before they also gave me a parking pass to the
VIP/Media parking lot, but when I tried to head that way the road was
blocked by a couple of cop cars. I rolled down the window and showed
them the map of the lot, and was directed to go some other way. Finally
after 15-20 minutes of trying to find this place I just gave up and
headed towards the general parking lot, which was closed off by then and
I got funneled onto some road leading away from Nashville. At which
point I basically made an illegal U-turn and got stuck in traffic for
another 15-20 minutes heading back in town. By the time I found a
parking garage and settled in it was 40 minutes before race start.
Maureen and I quickly made the 10-15 minutes walk to the start line, and
since she really had to use the bathroom and I really needed to warm up
so I gave her my race day VIP bracelet so she can skip the port-a-john
lines and go into the bar where the pre-race VIP area was. As I dropped
her off I also ran into Scott, so we headed out for a very short warmup
and then tried to get into our corral. We ran into Joseph Elsakr who was
also running the half, but disaster nearly struck when we tried to get
into the corral and the volunteer that was guarding the gate tried to
make Joe and I go into the 2nd corral because our bib numbers started
with 2 (203 and 204) and Scott/Joe/I had to argue/explain to her that we
had elite bibs on and they weren't the 4-digit bibs that started with
"2" that belonged in the 2nd corral. It's unbelievable that every year I
see people with 5 digit bibs hogging the front line of the Rock n Roll
Las Vegas marathon but we run into the one misinformed corral guard that
almost screwed us. Oh well.
The race started and I knew with the lineup it would go out hard for at least a mile or two, but shortly after the first mile the place slowed a bit (probably due to the hill) and given how strong I felt I took the lead. From mile 2 to the 5K point I had two challengers that took the lead from me for a minute or so before I would basically maintain my pace through the next uphill climb and they would drop back. I believe at one point I had about a 6-8 second lead, but around mile 9 I hit a bad patch and Roosevelt caught up and we ran the next couple of miles together. It was a little frustrating as I felt like I was comfortable sharing the lead, but whenever I tried to surge and make a move he would cover it with ease. Finally, with 1.5 miles to go he made a move up one of the hills and I didn't respond in time, and given that the last 1-1.5 miles had one climb after another I just didn't have a chance to close that gap. It was pretty disappointing to lose a race like that, but the overall experience of leading a RnR half race for over 10 miles was pretty cool, hopefully I can close the deal next time. Final result - 68:54 / 2nd place. The caveat is that Scott told me before the race that this course is about 1:15 slower than a flat course like Houston, so while I don't actually count things like this, it would "convert" to a 67:39 or a 5-second PR, which made me feel a little bit better.
Shortly after the race I jogged back to the car and changed quickly, I then jogged out onto the course to cheer for Scott who looked like he was out for a stroll (I found out later he basically pulled away a mile or two earlier and was just trying to keep the effort easy until they hit 5-6 miles to go) as well as look for Maureen. She didn't have a great race, but still ran her 4th fastest half marathon ever on a tough course. Due to the fact that I finished in the top 3 they gave me another VIP bracelet, so we went and hung out in the postrace buffet for awhile until Maureen got pretty sick so we headed out. At least I was there in time to see Scott finish and get interviewed as we were walking out, and got a chance to chat with a couple of promising up and coming runners Joseph Elsakr and Ben Li for a few minutes before we got out of dodge. We stopped back at Maureen's cousin's place for a quick lunch with some delicious barbecue they had picked up. Another 18-20 hours and close to 1000 miles later, we were back home. I pretty much went to bed shortly after, definitely wasn't up for a run.
Upcoming race/trip reports:
-USA 25 KM championships
-Bolder Boulder 10KM
-Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon
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