Bellingham Half Marathon: 1:31:47

"Ok. I'll just hang on with those 5 women in front of me. They won't go that fast, will they?"

Hah. I lost them within the first 1/2 mile. Or, rather, I should say that they lost me. I couldn't see them after the first 2 miles. And I'm pretty sure I was going fairly fast in the first 2 or 3 miles. There were no mile markers until Mile 3 and, as I've shorted out my Garmin for good, I was relying on my stopwatch and mile markers to try to gauge my speed. I looked down and saw 7 minutes without seeing the first mile marker and though, "Geesh, this is going to be a long race if I feel like I'm really hauling and I'm not even running a seven-minute mile!" Similarly with the 2nd mile.
Finally, a mile marker! I was under a seven-minute average. Not too many people around: the usual couple of men who are super heavy breathers near me, who I couldn't seem to shake fast enough.
Mile 4, this woman who looked about my age, in a blue tank top, passed me and kept moving. I couldn't catch her.
Drat!
And it was humid! We had been walking around WWU in sunny dry weather the day before. Sunday, in contrast, was overcast and super, super humid. Even Jesi, who doesn't usually have a problem with her asthma, commented that she was having problems with it before the race - likely because of the cool, humid weather.
Sweat was pouring but I was feeling really good. I started singing to myself and looking at the blurry, beautiful landscape.
But, I was by myself, for the most part. So I let myself get a little lazy. By about mile 9, I realized I was right at a seven-minute mile average. Boy had I slowed myself down.
But, I caught it. Plus, I had the boost of Jesi's husband cheering for me before mile 9 and the joy of completing the first loop of the race. 4 more to go.
I was in with the marathoners now, passing a lot of them. They had started earlier, so these were the slower ones. It was hard because of the course, physically, but good, mentally.
Part of the course was on sidewalks/rain-filled shoulders with cars passing. The combination of the additional runners from the marathon and quite a few half marathoners slowing drastically made this challenging to navigate.
And, in the last half of the course, there were hills. Jesi: "I thought they were pretty easy!" Me: "They don't make hills like that in Brooklyn!"
Some of them were straight up - like the hill at the bottom of Brooklyn Heights, on the way back to the Promenade. Whew! But, I kept up my pace, at least sticking to sevens even if I couldn't raise it, due to the hills and to the extra-sharp turns getting onto the different small paths they were taking us on.
We went over a bridge around mile 11, which was beautiful, but very windy, and up, up, up, up. I still felt great.

Then, the race was pretty much over. I kept up my pace and even picked it up a bit - at least, it felt like it. Passed a lot of people who had passed me previously.

Caught up with the woman in blue and passed her around mile 12. Finished quite a bit ahead of her. Heh.
Right near the end, I got another much-appreciated boost because Jesi and the Chestershire Cat waited around a bit for me and cheered me home.

The rain started right after I finished. A great IPA from a local brewery finished off the race experience. Yum. And I never would have done this race except that Chestershire Cat suggested it. I'm glad I did it.
Everyone we knew who were racing had fun.
Plus, the race was small enough that, even though I didn't have a stellar time, I still got 2nd in my age group. Yay!
I coughed the whole time because of asthma but it never got too bad. The only negative in the race was the burrito we ate the day before the race. It hit me again at around mile 12. Ugh! Good idea for a hang-over, bad idea for race-day priming!

The Third Day in a Row of Hills

and having my only chance to eat lunch at 10:00am made yesterday seem particularly difficult.

Fighting with my mind and with my body. My lungs actually physcially hurt yesterday, as if I had done speedwork the day before and really opened them up, which I hadn't.

Right after trying to persuade undergraduates that they really don't know anything at all, or, if they do, it certainly isn't because it's a justified true belief, I laced up and headed out. I knew I had limited time before having to go to get another meeting.

Fought through the students down to 54th (school's back in session!) and went over to the West Side Highway. Just past 79th, I took the (now optional) route going up to the 101st street park. Instead of dipping back onto the West Side, I continued down Riverside Drive. Friday had given me enough of the top part of the ocean path.

Why the designers of running paths never actually seem to consult runners astounds me. The path narrows considerably up past 100th st. The way that the designers have it set up, there are bikers going both directions on one side and then a path for runners on the other. So far so good. But the path for the runners is right next to the water. Which is where the designers decided to put in all the camber for water drainage. And the path is narrow enough, with enough bike traffic, that runners really need to stay in the running lane in order to be both courteous and, more importantly, safe. Which leads to the ouchy knee situation of Friday and Saturday. No thank you.

So I took my chances on the cobblestones. Going up to 130th (I think: I made it to the bridge, started going over, then just decided to turn around), I saw about 300 children, 100 nannies and groups of Columbia Freshmen getting oriented.

Every time I run up there, I am convinced that the way uptown is almost completely uphill, and that the way back will be a leg and lung-saving downhill slope. And every time I return to Midtown on this route, I realize how wrong I am. It's true that the largest uphills are on the way uptown. But there's a reason why the hills in Harlem are called 'rolling'. Sheesh.

Tried to push the pace a bit past 100th and then back to my office. Both because I thought I should and because I was afraid of being late to my next meeting. Was semi-successful. Don't know if I was going fast at all but my lungs burned and my calves started twitching.

Best moment: the glorious view of the pregnant women waddling in and out of the hospital on 58th and 10th. Done. Number of times I almost turned around during the run: about 17. Number of miles: about 9. Amount of food inhaled when I could finally eat: let's just say I had about 2 dinners last night.

Worried a bit about Mondays and Wednesdays. Middle-of-the-afternoon runs are not my forte. Hills are not my forte (although they ought to be my friends!). Not eating and then going running is not my forte.

Although conquering obstacles is supposed to be good for you, right?