This morning I ran my first half-marathon race in two years, finishing my hometown of Gainesville's Five Points of Life event for the fourth time in eight years. It was also the race I was the least prepared for, having not consistently trained for that 13.1-mile distance as I have in the past with regular runs of five to ten miles...and it was reflected in my final finishing-line-crossing time of 2:26:08, easily by far my all-time slowest half-marathon. Looking back on it, I had no business in running it, but I did it anyway. But I probably would have come out of it with a better time had a number of mishaps not beset me, beginning with the race's start...
I had read somewhere that the Five Points of Life Half-Marathon, which runs concurrently with the marathon event, was set to begin at 7:30 am...my mistake was not to back up this observation. I got up early in the morning and timed everything to reach the race site's parking lot (behind the Orthopaedic Center off SW 34th Street) around a half-hour before the start...it was a nippy 47 degrees and I didn't want to spend too much time standing around shivering before the race, but I still wanted to use their bathroom facilities. I found some empty remaining parking spaces in the back and noticed the lack of runners mulling around when I got out of the car. And then I heard the national anthem being played and, still a half-mile from the starting line, I realized I had made a huge mistake: I nearly sprinted the distance and reached the race just as it was beginning, filing into the crowd of entrants near the rear. I was already winded before the race began and I needed to go to the bathroom! Still, I kept my head, found a volunteer pacer for a slower pace than I had planned, and flowed with my circumstances. I eventually did find a portable bathroom after about two miles, but I had to wait about five minutes in line to get to use it. When I emerged, my pacer was way down the road and I knew it would take a while to catch up. A mile or two later I found myself succumbing to a severe coughing attack and had to stop and walk for another five minutes or so, wondering whether the race would end in this ignoble fashion for me. But I persevered and eventually caught up with my pacer, who was running the full marathon at a five-hour pace...meaning that sticking with him would give me around a two-hour thirty minute half-marathon time. I had planned to follow someone pacing for a 2:15 time but after that initial rush to begin the race, I settled into a more pragmatic strategy. I stuck with the pacer's group then for most of the remainder of the race and appreciate the great job he did. He was always looking around him and asking how runners in his contingent were doing while pointing out hydration stations with Gatorade and water and turns in the course. I was sorely reminded of the hilliness of this course and began to suffer a bad cramp in my right thigh right near the end of the race while going (again) uphill on Fraternity Row. My pacer pulled up beside me and walked with me, asking if I'd like him to stay with me to the end. But although I appreciated his concern, I told him this same thing happened two years earlier and I would be fine. So he went on ahead to pace his marathon distance and I recovered after yet another five-minute walking break to finish this difficult race. Yet I'll say one thing: in spite of me running a fast half-mile just before the race began, getting sidetracked waiting at the porta-potty for five minutes and having to stop and walk for a total of about ten minutes due to coughing and cramps, my energy level remained strong to the end. Several hours later, my legs feel sore, but that's normal...I'm definitely going to take it easy with the running for the next few days.
As for the total distance I ran and my final time: the (fast) half-mile I ran just before the race added to the total mileage, but then I discovered on my android phone GPS tracker that I had covered 13.7 miles during the race! So my run was actually for a total of 14.2 miles. As for the finishing time, as I had mentioned, I crossed the line at 2:26:08...but it took about 30-40 seconds at the race's beginning to even reach the starting line. Whether that will be taken into account when they tabulate my "official" time, I don't know. Not that it really matters...I'm just happy I stuck with the race through all the adversity and finished it with my head held up high. Having supportive people around me was a real help, too. Oh, and if you're wondering what the photo is that I included with this article, it is the view in front of us running westward on SW 2nd Avenue, during the second half of the race, in the direction of the University of Florida campus...
