Race Report: Palos Heights Half Marathon

Sunday was the big day. My rematch with the Palos Bank Half Marathon, a.k.a., the Mono Half-Marathon of 2008. If you recall, I ran this race last year, not knowing that I had mono. About five miles in, I hit the wall and didn't know why. It got worse after that, with me literallyshuffling towards the finish suffering from tunnel vision. I finished seven minutes off my slow time, before fainting in the grass after I collected my belongings. It was an equally scary drive back to the North side.

Of course, there were better races after that. But still, I wanted to show this particular suburban race who's the boss. And it's not Tony.

Pre-race
I was an idiot and didn't check to make sure that my alarm clock was on the right schedule after last week's power outage. So, when I set the clock to get me up at 5 AM, I'd actually set it for 5 PM. Oops. Luckily, I rolled over, opened my eyes, saw that the time was currently 5:45 AM and made with the quickness. I'd even gotten all the way to Lakeshore Drive before realizing that I'd left Joanie Garmin at home. This would not do, so I used my best illegal driving skills, said a few prayers, and returned home. Once I got back on the road again, I prayed that my new directions would work and that I'd be able to find parking once I got to the start.

Luckily, I made with with over a half hour to spare. This gave me plenty of time to gear check, use the restrooms, and warm up.

Start
Since the field is so small (there are less than 2,000 runners), there are no corrals, no pacers, and not a huge wait time. I made it through the start in 40 seconds. I decided to hang at a 10:00 pace for as long as I could. My overall goal was to beat my time last year of 2:37. There were a lot of chatty people around me, so I zoned in an out of conversations. I had a few lines of The Killer's song "All These Things that I've Done" running on a loop in my head, too. The weather was great...perfect for a race. I was very happy with my choice of shorts and singlet + hat. The 10:00 pace was feeling good to me, but it was tempting to go faster. Still I hovered around a 10:00 to 10:05 pace. I definitely did not want to bonk this time.

Middle Miles
I saw a man dressed as a banana.

More Middle Miles
The course is out-and-back, so I knew eventually we'd see the winners go by. Sure enough, around mile 4 or 5, the two Kenyans ran by. They looked amazing and we all cheered as we saw them zoom by us. It was a couple of minutes before the first female ran by, but she looked super-duper. I was starting to get a little bored with the scenery and wondering when I was going to get to the turnaround. As the course is fairly straight with only a few small rises in the road, you could see just how far you had to go. I was reminded of this when two men running behind both made note of the fact before we got to mile 5.

Thanks for reminding me, guys.

Turnaround Time
I felt a new surge of energy at the turnaround and felt like I was picking up the pace. Not according to Joanie Garmin, though. Also, usually I walk through the water stations, but this time I didn't. Plus, there was a scarcity of sports drink on the course. I'd brought my shot bloks with me, but was hoping to save those for after I hit the hour mark. I ended up having to take 2 early because there was not sports drink! What's up with that? Last year there was...

Around mile 8 I started to feel pretty tired. This discouraged me because I really wanted 10:00 to be an easy pace for me to maintain, come marathon time. If it was becoming difficult at mile 8 of a half marathon, what does this mean for mile 8 of a marathon? But I pressed on. I started to feel a little better when I started passing people who'd dusted me earlier. Sweet.

It was here that I also was strollered and Rod Stewart-ed. That's right, Rod Stewart-ed. No, no one wants my body or thinks I'm sexy, especially not 7 miles and some change into a half marathon. I could hear someone singing loudly from behind me. Other people turned around to look. Sure enough, loping by all of us was a man singing his heart out to "Forever Young". I had to laugh a little...mostly because he was very pitchy.

5K to go...
At mile 10, I perked up a bit. I wasn't able to up my pace that much, but I felt like the end was within my reach. According to Joanie Garmin, I was going to PR as well.

One Mile and the Finish
At mile 12, I knew I had to run it home but was feeling pretty done with the race. I did everything I could to push the pace. I talked to my legs, I smiled, I threatened. Some of the guys that I'd seen running with the elites were waiting by the side of the road, cheering us on and telling us not to quit. So I ran it home and finished in 2:13 and some change. For me, that's a three minute PR from my last half marathon and a 24 minute PR from last year's mono half-marathon. I must confess that I was shooting for closer to 2 hours, but I feel like that's definitely within my range of ability. Eventually.

As I wandered around, eating my post race banana, I saw Khalid Khannouchi again. He was sitting outside one of the tents with his wife, just chillin'. It was weird, seeing the former world record holder with no fanfare, no entourage, nothing! Also sitting nearby were the winners. I walked up to the winners and congratulated them. They were so gracious and nice. They even stood up when I walked over.

I then walked over to Khalid and introduced myself again. He remembered me! He asked if I'd managed to do better than last year. I told him that I had indeed, by over 20 minutes ( I left out the part about my 2:16 half-marathon last September). He was impressed and said that next year, I should shoot for under two. He then talked to me about building up my mileage and getting in more consistent speedwork. I was kinda in awe for a hot minute. However, I regained my composure and asked if I could take a picture with him. He hopped up and put his arm around dirty old me and his wife took the picture.


He then wished me luck!! Another older runner came up to us and pointed at me, asking "who's the world record holder?" And I said "If you're talking about 1st generation Irish girls born in Hawaii and living in Chicago right now who speak French, then it's me".

This got a few chuckles.

Post Race
WTF...I'M SO SORE!!! I'm really at a loss to explain why I'm so sore! I mean, yeah I ran pretty hard yesterday, but I'm hurting worse than when I finished the Chicago Marathon! Both quads are sore and so is my right calf muscle. And I have a bit of a sunburn, too. Today I am walking like John Wayne.



This week's posts may be nonexistent because I'm taking the week off, running-wise, and I have the GRE on Saturday, which could royally fuck up my life.