(Half) Marathon Madness!
Monday, August 3rd, 2009(Half) Marathon Madness!
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Oh Boy, 4:40 a.m. came way too fast! My eyes snapped open – I was excited and animated and ready for the day to begin. But with only abut 4½ hours of sleep, it was difficult to get my eyes to stay open and make them focus (or at least my version of focused 
). But since I was pumped for my half marathon, the sleepiness left me fairly quickly.
First thing I did was head for the kitchen for my pre-race meal. I had asked a fellow runner who was preparing to run the full marathon what he eats for his pre-race meal, and he said pancakes. Good for him, but I couldn’t imagine eating that heavy of a meal before a race. I slurped down my usual yogurt with maple syrup, and chewed on a small banana. This was a little more than I normally eat before going out for a run, because first off, I was eating quite a bit earlier as the race wasn’t until 6:00 a.m., and secondly: I knew I would be running at a faster pace than I normally do on my training runs.
Then it was time to get dressed which, of course, took no time at all since I had laid out my half marathon running clothes the night before.
We had the cameras and water packed, and we were off. We arrived at the race site around 5:20 a.m., and there was already a big crowd gathering. We heard on the loud speaker that there were about 1,000 more racers registered in the half marathon this year. That is a big jump in one year!
We were hanging out when my chiropractor, Dr. Kevin Krieg trotted up. He looked ready to run, and as always…excited to see me. That man has more positive energy exuding from one eyelid than most people have in their whole body. He is a force of nature!!
I asked him what kind of nutrition he was going to eat during the race. He pulled a Luna Moon from his pocket saying, “They’re for women.” We laughed at the way he said it. But no worries, men can eat them too. Then he went off to stretch, wishing me good luck in the race.
Within a minute another friend of ours, Leslie and her 16 year old daughter Jade showed up. While it wasn’t pre-planned, we decided that maybe it would be easier for me, if I would run just behind them. We made our way over to the starting area. We positioned ourselves in the middle of the pack. T snapped a quick pic, and then got out of the way.
Vision Runner and Leslie and Jade starting line Missoula Half Marathon 2009
If I had it to do over, I would have started closer to the edge of the road, closer to the white line, as I lost Leslie and Jade soon after the starting cannon went off at 6 a.m. There were just too many runners vying for position, and I can’t blame them: I used to do the same thing.
But once I found the edge of the road, and the crowds thinned out some within a few minutes, I was fine running my own pace. I ended up passing many of the runners who started out too gung-ho, as they were already walking!
Unlike the year before, the first few miles were fairly crowded with runners. Last year I could hear the wild turkeys, but not this year; only the sound of fellow runners’ feet slap-slapping the pavement.
The river was beautiful as the sun started to come up. But it was the sun that got me as we turned right into its full force. I had to stop and break out my white cane.
This served two purposes – one, it let my fellow runners know I did not see well, and two, it kept me from running off the road! Once I got my bearings, I could see the silhouettes of other runners, so I followed them.
It was not until I got over McClay’s Bridge, that I almost ran into a problem. . .
How ’bout it?
-Vision Runner
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Title: (Half) Marathon Madness!
URL: http://runnerinsight.com/2009/08/03/half-marathon-madness/
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