Avenue of the Giants Half (non) Race Report

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to calm myself.  Even though this race wasn’t going to be a race effort for me, I was still nervous.  This would be my longest MRP (race pace) run and not much off my PR (1:45.46) and I was a little afraid that I wouldn’t take it easy enough for something that is supposed to be a taper run.  Did I mention that this course is almost entirely beneath the Redwoods, so my Garmin would be spotty at best and I’d be running on feel?  Last time I ran the course, I crashed.  Bad.  Don’t you remember?  Nerves, totally justified here, I think.

 SRRC photo, Y. Kim credit.  Can you find me?  I'm in purple.

With the horn, we were off.    After spending the first mile weaving in and out of a sea of walkers, I hit the lap button: 8:15.  Woohoo!  I really regretted missing all the natural beauty along the course last time, so I made a point to look up and enjoy it all this time around.

The miles went off without any trouble.  When one mile split was a little too fast, I adjusted and slowed a bit.  It seemed to work out.  The small rolling hills kept my legs from feeling over-taxed and I had a really great time.  The course was out-and-back, so I got to see the leaders from the half whiz by.  I knew a few by name and shouted that in my “Good job!”  I think a few of them were surprised someone knew them as this is our club’s largest race and is mostly people from out of town.  It was fun cheering for everyone as they passed by.  And  I got to see what the fast people look like from the front, it is racing and spectating all rolled into one.

My favorite sign of the day was held by a burly bearded man in a purple (Team in Training) tutu.  His sign read “Run faster… I just farted!”.  Pure genius.

Near mile 6, Danny flew by on his bike.  He said something about being the center of attention and rode along next to me for a few minutes and then took off, presumably to check on someone else.  I thought to yell at him for riding on the (CLOSED TO BIKES) course.  Later, I realized that he was actually filming me for a documentary that Bob Anderson is putting together.   It felt like running with a buddy, so hopefully I was less awkward there.  Several runners asked me as I passed, “Weren’t you working the registration booth this morning?”  “Yeah, and I was here all day yesterday too,” I replied.

From the halfway turnaround spot, I focused on maintaining my pace.  It excited me to see everybody coming, especially the full marathoners that were on their second half of the course.  I counted runners as I waited for Matt to whiz by.  I had just finished counting them on one hand when Matt came by.  He looked really solid.  I think I wanted him to meet his goal more than he did.

I enjoyed the other runners, the towering canopy of Redwoods with sunshine filtering through upon their shoulders.  I really loved it.  It’s crazy how different it felt from the previous running of this race course.  The hills that killed me last time were non-existent.  It isn’t the hilliest half, but it is just slow enough with its 700 ft. of climbing that it isn’t the first choice for someone that is trying to shave seconds from their PR, so it doesn’t attract stiff competition.

From mile 7-12, I heard footsteps behind me.  Someone was shadowing me and their footfalls matched mine exactly.  It annoyed me too because the person had noisy keys in his pocket and breathed very heavily.  I slowed to lose him, I sped up to lose him, but nothing worked.  He was just THERE.

We hit the final mile, with the biggest hill on the course, one over Hwy 101.  I slowed nearly to a walk pace, he stayed behind.  I crested the hill and zoom, he was gone.  I was feeling great and it took every ounce of my power to not take off after him.  I wanted to beat him so badly, but I didn’t want to sacrifice any recovery for a momentary thrill.  When the course popped out onto the Eel River Bridge at mile 13, I let myself kick.  Less than a mile, that’s ok.  And you know what? I almost caught him.

I crossed the finish line knowing I could have had a PR, but felt really happy with the performance I did have.  It feels really great to do my last MRP run strong.

So my goal was to run the 8:12/mi pace the entire race.  That translates to a 1:47.25.

My finishing time was 1:47.09 and an 8:10/mi pace.   

That is just FOURTEEN SECONDS from my goal.  How is that for nailing it?  (I also found out that I beat my Circuit rival by just two seconds for the win in our age group! Woohoo!)

So I crossed the finish line and grabbed a water bottle, and chatted quickly with a friend.  I took off running, one hand clutching the water and the other holding my medal to keep it from smacking me in the face as I ran.  Other finishers looked at me oddly as I ran away from the finish line.  One even yelled out, “You know you crossed the finish line right?  No need to run anymore.”

I knew I had about 15 minutes (at most) from the time I finished and when Matt did.  I wanted to make sure I aced the cheerleader portion of the day, too.  

Want to know how Matt did?  Stay tuned, I'll let you know tomorrow.  It deserves a special post, I promise. :)