Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Half Marathon Endorphins (Fighting Sea Bees Half Marathon Review)

This past Sunday I ran the Fighting Sea Bees half marathon in Quonset, RI.

Went to the packet pickup the day before as it was pretty close to home. Got the shirt, which is a really nice tech shirt. I know you can't please everyone, and I'm sure that's how race directors feel, but I have tons of tech shirts. Seems like every race gives them out, and I have my own nice training gear, so I'm not really in need of more tech stuff. The shirt is nice though, and maybe when I've run more halves, I'll have an HM quilt made from the logos.

On race day I screwed up my food pretty bad. Had planned on trying some of the new Pinole cereal I got, but it took so long to prepare that I didn't have time to eat it. Had to settle on some early morning nutrition of fruit and vegetable juice along with a couple handfuls of cashews. Arrived at the parking about an hour ahead, to find a massive crowd, and truly, the worst port-o-johns I have ever used.

If those port-o-johns could talk, man. Well, they'd probably just cry.

At about 8 am we headed to the start area, got the pre-race talk, and headed out.

I didn't have any goal for the time, just trying to cover the miles as I get back on my feet. Dialed in a comfy pace and tried helping one of my friends along to her desired 10:30/mile. We did OK for about half the race, but broke down in the final quarter of it as the hills, headwind, and beating sun started to take a toll on our game.

Races are fickle like that, the conditions have to align just right in order for you to perform at peak. Overall it was a really lovely race, great day, calm location, well marked course. The course support was very, very good. About every mile and a half there would be an aid stop, which meant even though we were running through a pretty empty part of the world we would see people every so often.

At the end the medal was nice, the timing company provided a little receipt with the completion time, pace info, etc. Pretty good system, again with good support.

My legs felt good at the end of the day, but I was stunned to find that the next day I popped awake at 5 am feeling more sunny than I have in MONTHS. The endorphin hit lasted for a full 16 hours. It was incredible, and it's driving me to sign up for more HMs to see if I can get going again.

Baby girl is incredible. 15 months (almost 16) and can do so much. Turns pages in the books, reads them to me (in her own toddler-language). Loves the cats and dog, loves Elmo. She's constantly walking, wandering off to pick stuff up, and then leave it later on. Such a cool thing to watch all the developmental stages I studied back in college first hand, and very happy knowing she's on track (or even ahead) in some categories.


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