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Cartoon by Hugh MacLeod

I ran the Country Music Half-Marathon (13.1 miles) last Saturday in Nashville, TN. I hadn’t run a half in several years so it was pretty exciting to be back in the game after training for about five months.

Several of you asked for a race re-cap, so here it is.

The race started at 6:45 a.m.

Yes.

That’s 6:45 IN THE MORNING.

I don’t do mornings.

But.

That day I was up and out of bed and even consuming liquids and solids such as water, coffee, yogurt, strawberries and bananas and such by 5:00 a.m.

I was at the start line at Nashville’s Centennial Park by 6:30 a.m. Now that is some way to start your day — if you are a Panamanian Night Monkey or a Wombat or a Lemur.

I — on the other hand — am not nocturnal and was actually born to sleep during the night and slowly rise some time after dawn.

And let’s just skip right over the conversation about the whole Port-a-Potty starting-line experience, OK?

#GROSS

Anyway.

So basically I got up and out of bed really reluctantly to the obnoxious sound of my iPhone alarm, dressed, ate, pinned my race number (“bib” as they call it in the race community these days) on my shirt, laced up my shoes, and made it to the start line where some (really great) music was blaring and the crowd of 33,000+ people anxiously awaited the sound of the gun.

And we were off.

Miles one and two were pretty much downhill through downtown Nashville.

Miles three through 13 were basically uphill with the exception of two 100 foot barely noticeable downhill trods.

Ok. That may be a slight exaggeration but that is how it felt.

And we all know that perception is reality, right??

Right.

I thought the race was very, very well-organized with the exception of part of the course. Miles four or five through eight or nine were on such narrow roads that we (all 33,000 of us) had no more than a lane and a half at any given time to squeeze in to. And, because practically the entire race was uphill, most people were walking, not running.

And we were so squeezed together that when you wanted to run…you couldn’t. There was no room to get past anyone. That part was really, really frustrating.

I will never understand why race organizers do not stress and stress and stress that when you’re walking you should stay to the right!

That is just common courtesy…yet I never hear it at any race.

Those of you who are distance runners know how much energy it takes just to complete a race let alone add an extra two miles to your course because you’re constantly weaving in, out, and between slower runners and walkers. Asking walkers to stay to the right would help A LOT IMO.

The weather also presented a challenge.

We started receiving alerts a few days before the race that very severe weather, including thunderstorms and tornadoes, was scheduled to move in on the morning of the race. The Rock-N-Roll staff worked with emergency officials on contingency plans and kept us updated through the website and emails on the days preceding the race. There was never an announcement that they might cancel the race, but they made it clear that it could be delayed due to weather. They also announced that those running the full-marathon may be cut short if they did not finish in 4.5 hours or less.

We lucked out for the first couple of hours and had pretty sunny weather. It wasn’t hot, but it was incredibly muggy, and my clothes were drenched by the end of mile two. I don’t think I had sweated that much during all of my training runs combined!

Around mile 10 ominous clouds appeared and we knew our luck had run out.

During mile 11 I started feeling light raindrops and it got progressively heavier. As we were wrapping up mile 12 and nearing the finish line at the stadium, lightening was everywhere.

We finished in a downpour. My shoes and socks were absolutely soaked and squishy. (That’s a really gross feeling btw.)

Needless to say, things were really chaotic at that point. It was a major bummer not to be able to enjoy the experience of the finish line after running 13.1 miles. That really was my only disappointment of the whole experience.

I was fortunate to find a taxi pretty quickly after a half-mile walk across a bridge over the river back in to downtown (that was loads of fun…in pouring rain and lightening!)

All in all it was a phenomenal experience and I plan to run it again next year.

Only maybe next year I will be running the full marathon! (26.2 miles) I plan to run a full-marathon in 2011; I’m just not sure which one yet.

Next up as far as races go this year are the Rock-N-Roll Half in Virginia Beach in September, the Rock-N-Roll Half in San Antonio, TX, in November, and then of course my favorite…the Thanksgiving Day Half-Marathon here in Atlanta, GA. I can think of no better way to start Thanksgiving Day!

Tagged as: Blogging, Cartoon by Hugh, distance running, Do you want to have fun or not, It's personal, Stephanie A. Lloyd

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