Phoenix Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon Report

*** Warning: If you do not want to read a less than upbeat post, come back when I’m back to my cheery self… especially since this is a REALLY long race report ***

What was all that crap I talked about yesterday? Bonding with women over something that we share and love? Blah, blah, blah. Today was awful, ok… great, but awful all at the same time!
We got up bright and early at 5 am (after a sleepless night). We’re in Phoenix, and I check out the weather. Yup, a balmy 26°F and I can see my breath in the dark morning air. So there wasn’t much thinking about what to wear. Capris, fitted tank, long sleeve shirt, long sleeve turtle neck, jacket, running hat and gloves. I also wore long pants over the capris for the trip to the start.
We drove to the parking lots at the finish line and got in line for the buses to take us to the start. It was so cold out, all we could think of was “didn’t we pick a warm and flat run on purpose”? What happened to the warm part? We waited for 45 minutes for a bus, only to find out that people at other parking lots got right on without waiting. Luck of the draw.

We got to the start and got in line for the porta potties. We waiting for about 30 minutes in line and near the front we heard people coming out saying “no toilet paper”. NO TP?!?! Oh no, this can’t be! A girl we befriended in line turns to me and kindly hands me a piece of Kleenex from her pocket. I accept it with a gracious “thank you” and smile on my face all the while thinking “what the HELL am I going to do with ONE piece of Kleenex”? Don’t these people know that I had a HUGE carbo load dinner last night, followed by a Starbucks coffee this morning and that this was my first nervous trip to a potty post coffee? Beggers can’t be choosers but OMG.

Needless to say the Kleenex was less than sufficient. Though I can’t complain, one of the women in our group (let’s call her Lola to protect her identity) chose to use her 8x10 race envelope to wipe! Special addition, she just told me that she tore it up before making use of it!

After the potty, I took off my long pants and put on (yup) a pink skirt over my capris. We checked our gear bags and got in corral 14 at the start. The race was being delayed by a few minutes to accommodate the late buses. We are also really far back and our predicted cross time was 30 minutes after the official race start. I noticed 6 potties without a lineup right next to the corral so I decided to go for it. For one last visit before the run and to (TMI) get a hold of some more TP!
Soon after that we were off. It was amazing, I have never participated in such a HUGE and well organized race. We were surrounded by people, 12,000 to be exact (27,000 ran the full marathon as it’s a great Boston qualifier). Nancy set off with Jodi and I ran with Tosha, her twin sister and mom. Tosha is a veteran but her mom and sister were running their first half marathon! So exciting!

I knew I had problems when mile 0 felt like mile 21 of the full marathon. My right hip is rotated forward which shortens my right leg a little relative to my left. As a result, my gate is off which causes the shooting pain in my knee, hamstring and hip flexor. It also results in blood blisters on my right foot if I run for longer distances. I know a lot of you feel the effects for offset gates (and pronation) and it sucks! Normally this can be controlled by a little massage where the therapist tugs on my right leg to lengthen it and works on the hips to rotate it back into place. Yes, my bad for not taking care of myself.

The sun came up and I quickly tied my jacket around my waist. By mile 3 I knew I had to make a decision. I didn’t think I could cover 13.1 miles feeling like that and if I did, was I going to cause more damage and hurt my tri season? Here’s where I hate those wonderful women I talked about in my post last night. Tosha (who herself has a sprained ankle) turned to me and gave me the glaring “now I know DNF if not in your vocabulary” look. After some discussion, she convinced me that it would suck, but I likely wouldn’t cause much more damage than was already done.

So that thought behind me, I started focusing on how I was going to make it another 10 miles to the finish line. The pain really ranked a close second to the marathon pain and I wondered if it was worth it. Why am I not in bed and heading down to the spa instead of suffering through this crap? Then a series of events occurred that really changed the course of my run. First, I ran by 2 groups with Canadian flags all dressed in red which always affects me. I gave my usual “GO CANADA” shout out and forgot all about everything for a little while. But then the kicker. I have seen this so many times before and I don’t know why this one particular woman impacted me so much. She was running with a picture of her son pinned to her back. He was wearing army fatigues in this picture and just above the picture the words “I’m running in memory of”. You quickly think about what real pain is and it makes you feel ashamed and selfish for fretting over a sore leg.

Around mile 7 I took a couple of Motrin that Tosha was carrying and stopped at the potty. A six minute wait for two of us to use the bathroom. We weren’t out to set any records today but 6 minutes of standing around in the cold is not the best use of time in a half marathon. I stretched a lot in line and then focused on lengthening my stride while running. This got me through to mile 9.

At mile 9, Tosha’s sister started to bonk badly. She has bad knees and was feeling a lot of pain. She also hadn’t taken in enough calories during the run and needed some fuel. Tosha’s mom was feeling great and we wanted her to keep moving. They moved up ahead and I hung back with Tosha’s sister. This was a blessing in disguise because instead of feeling sorry for myself, I started to remember what my friends did for me to get me through my first half and full marathons. I tried to channel this to her and stopped thinking about whatever I was feeling. She got in some Gu and Nuun water I was carrying on the run. I ran up ahead to Tosha to get some Motrin for her to take as well. I think this helped a bit and she was moving well again (some rough patches) but was motivated by the thought of finishing her first half marathon!

Eventually we caught up with the others who hung back to wait for us. The thousands of volunteers, spectators, bands, cheerleaders, dancers and beautiful sunshine carried us through the finish. I have never seen such a large, well run race in my life! The tough part about Seattle was the lack of spectators. Not here, they were everywhere and despite the cold, the sun was shining brightly on us and we were all smiling! I’m sure the finish line photo will have the four of us, crossing together with big grins on our faces. Oh, I guess I should say something about finish times… with our 6 minute potty break, we crossed the line around 2:35. The one big positive was that my HR was very much under control, averaging 158 over the 13.1 miles. Come to think of it, 158 may be a little high for 11ish minute miles… hmmmm… base training here I finally come!

Nancy was as strong as ever, and she ran with Jodi the entire way. I think she could have easily broken her Seattle time but enjoyed the company over pushing a PR. Kathy in her first half had the fastest finish and really killed her A race for the year. Sandra, experienced some bad cramping from the Accelerade being served on the course and still had a speedy run. And Wendy, with 2 broken ribs, not able to run too fast and breathe too hard, actually made it through the finish and in great time. Jess, I hope you appreciate this 2 minute round up… you’ll have to get everyone’s full download when you get back!

So there are a few big take aways from today. No matter what the obstacle, mind over matter will carry you through almost anything. Sun, friends, strangers and Rock ‘N’ Roll can make you go from rock bottom to mile high in seconds. If you don’t take care of the nagging injuries they will wreak havoc at the most inopportune times. And for Pete’s sake, eat less the night before a race and stop with the coffee cause you never know when you’ll run out of TP!!!

I had really hoped to run the half marathon at the end of February back in my hometown in Canada. A friend of mine who is training for a 30 km race will be running her first half and I would love nothing more than to run with her that day. I know what it meant to me to have my friends support me this year, I would love to be there to share in her first half marathon experience. It is a crazy tough race that has over the years seen sun and 15°C as well as 2 feet of snow and -30°C weather. If I’m going to be of any use to her on this run, I am going to spend this week seeing the people I need to see to get my body back on track for success this year.

One more thing, is anyone annoyed about the NFL playoffs this year? NE and Indy won this weekend basically eliminating any chance I had of winning the football pool this year. Last year I lost for placing my bets on them, this year I’ll lose because I failed to realize they’d actually pull it out against SD and BAL. I’m such a sore loser!!! The only good thing that came out of the unusually cold Phoenix weather was that there was no shortage of football to take us through the weekend!