Race Report: Capital City Half-Marathon

On Saturday I ran the Capital City Half Marathon. The night before - while eating delicious sweet potato gnocchi with two lovely friends - I was telling them that I was excited to run on a flat course but that I wished that I were better trained (and had not had oral surgery two weeks ago). I didn't want to have any goals other than to finish, but part of me hoped that I could somehow pull off a faster time than I had on my birthday at the Get Lucky Half in Minneapolis.

I really like this motto. For running and for life. 

On the morning of the race, my friend who we will call AUH and I got up early, had a quick breakfast, got on our race gear and headed out. It was humid, but thankfully not as hot as I had anticipated it being. We got near the race site, found parking, and snapped a couple of photos before we headed toward the start line to get into our respective corrals.

While I was waiting in Corral C for the race to start, I ran into a former student who I knew was running the race and chatted with her for a couple of minutes before getting into the zone. I decided to line up with the 2:20 pace group and see how things went.

Before long the gun went off and soon we were across the start line. I kept pace with the 2:20 group until mile 4 and then I dropped back a bit. The humidity was bothering me a bit and my lack of real conditioning was starting to make itself felt. I did manage to stay in front of the 2:25 pace group for the next few miles, until around mile 7 I walked for a few minutes to take a GU and to let it settle. The GU revived me and I had a solid next couple of miles. During mile 10-11 I realized that I was feeling uncomfortably water-logged and that I really needed to urinate. I stopped for a quick biffy break at mile 11 and lost a couple of minutes. I then settled into a 4:1 run-walk routine until about a half mile out from the finish line. I crossed with an official time of 2:33:19.

My friend rocked her first half and finished in 2:30:42. I'm really proud of her and, even though we didn't actually run the race together, I'm so glad that I got to watch her finish (she was in a later corral so she finished after me even though she had a faster time) and that I got to be a part of her first half-marathon experience. After we made our way through the finish line, we went back to my friend's place to clean up and get on with our day, which included a trip to Pattycake Bakery to have some delicious post-race treats.

So, although I was not thrilled with my performance and struggled physically during this race, it was a fun event. The water stops were plentiful - there was essentially one every mile. The route was scenic and a fun way to experience a city where I used to live. The volunteers were friendly and the bands and deejays along the course were lively and entertaining. There was a lot of food at the finish line, including bagels, bananas, oranges, and chocolate. It was a sold out event with 13,000 participants between the half, quarter, and 5K, and it was a pretty great way to spend a morning.