Charity Chase Half Marathon Race Recap

I am so ready to get my speed back. Also, this race confirmed my self-diagnosis of running ADD. Last week I professed my love to trails. This week? Half marathons.

This race was by no means my fastest but it also wasn’t close to my slowest. Since I’m still recovering my speed after the marathon, I’ll take it.

From start to finish this race was well-organized. Packet pick up was painless and the little mini expo was pretty cool. (The only suggestion I would make would be to turn down the music. I had to ask the volunteer to repeat himself at one point.)

I woke up bright and early (5:30am) after a good night’s sleep. (That’s pretty remarkable for me in a hotel.) After a short drive we arrived at the parking area and headed up to the start line. The weather could not have been better. (Well, the humidity could have been less but it’s the south in the summer. Not much is going to change there.)

I am so glad I decided against the camelbak and the armband. (I just kept my Gu gel and Chomps in my back pocket.) Eventually I might run a race without music or my Garmin…eventually.

Right on time we were off.

(Okay, this was a minute before the start. :D)

A few minutes before the start I realized that a bathroom break would have been wonderful. I’m not sure what’s up. The past few races even though I haven’t taken in any excess liquid (like milk on cereal) I’ve still needed a pit stop at the race start. So, my overwhelming thought during the first loop was…”I need to find a portopotty.” Yeah, I was a bit distracted during that first loop.

The nice thing about this course is that it looped around back to the start/finish line so Dad was able to get plenty of pictures.

Finally, I made use of the portopotties about a mile past the start. The volunteer was quite surprised when I grabbed the “gatorade” out of his hand from behind.

That’s the one negative thing I have to say about the race. The “gatorade” they had on the course did not taste like gatorade. It had some sort of fizzy taste to it. I ended up taking water at most of the remaining stops.

After getting the distraction out of the way I was able to enjoy the course. It was a really beautiful course made even better by the awesome spectators and volunteers. There wasn’t an overwhelming number of spectators but when they were there they cheered quite enthusiastically.

The volunteers at the water stops were also fantastic. Charity Chase staged a competition between the water stops, the winners to be decided by the runners. After I finish this entry I’m going to vote for the water stop at mile 11. The guy there was the most animated, hilarious volunteer I have ever seen. Plus, one of the other volunteers who ran a little bit of the course with the runner in front of me told me I was “beautiful, strong woman”. Yes, attractive black man, I’ll love you forever for saying things like that.

On the back half of the second loop I did indeed feel strong; I felt amazing actually. I felt better at the end of this half marathon than I ever have before. I probably could have pushed harder earlier but I loved that feeling.

After one last hill I tried to pour on the speed and cruised to the finish.

Final time? 2:00:27
Without that one pit stop I would have finished under two hours. I’ll take that. 😀

As Dad and I walked to the car I saw Katy coming in strong. Great finish Katy!

I’m pleased with my time having just run a marathon last month and having completed only one speedwork session since then. However, my pace was all over the place. That’s definitely something I need to work on if I want to go sub 4:10:xx in Savannah in November.

Up next? Sunrise 8k next Saturday. Another lovely 6:30am start. 😀