Doin' the Danbury Shuffle

Yesterday was the half marathon in Danbury. I was pumped and felt pretty prepared. This was the first ½ marathon I have done in about 3 years. My last race was a 5K the December we moved to New Haven. After that race I vowed to never run outside in the winter time again. I think my lungs froze during that one.

99.9% of my training was done on the good 'ole gym treadmill. Talk about monotony!! It was just way too cold and too dark to run outside in the morning. Basically, anything less than 50 is not considered running weather in my mind. I don’t like running in the evening (still to cold) because I just want to go home after work and veg (I become a lazy fat ass after 6pm). I got use to logging miles on the mill and it actually wasn’t too horrible. I did get a couple of long runs done outdoors so that was great! Plus I figured if I could run on the treadmill for over an hour, I could run outside for longer.

The race was in Danbury, which is about 40 minutes away from Fairfield. This was the latest start time for a race I ever had…10:25am. I was a bit concerned about eating too early and being hungry right before the race. This didn’t prove to be too much of a problem. It was nice to not have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to run.

It was an awesome day for running. The sun was shining and we were supposed to have temps in the high 50s. This is after it had been cloudy and stormy all day Saturday and it is rainy and dreary today (Monday). We all definitely lucked out with the weather! When we first got to the race it was pretty windy and chilly. I was worried I didn’t have enough layers on, but once 10am hit, the wind died down a bit and it got warmer. I was pretty nervous before the start—although that is usually typical for me.

So the race starts, I was on a good pace at the 1 mile checkpoint. There were some people I had in my sights I wanted to better than. One was a group of four girls in green tanks and black running skirts. I just cannot get behind the running skirts. I also cannot get behind wearing an ipod during races. Sure, we all train with them, but part of the fun of doing these races is letting yourself soak up the atmosphere and possibly even talking to people. I know...this is becoming a foreign concept. So I passed two of the four greenies early on, the final two proved to be more prepared and beat me in the end.

Really, I was feeling great for the first 8 miles. The course was a bit hilly, but I was powering along. At about mile 7 my right knee started to have some sharp pain, but I wasn’t going to let that get me. I gave my knee a good talking too and it got back in the game. Mind over matter! Actually when I am feeling tired, I like to mentally bitch slap myself...something like, hey get your ass in gear!

After mile 8 things got a bit tougher! The hills just kept coming. I was cursing each hill! This is not to say the first 8 miles didn’t have any hills, they definitely did, but my body was starting to feel ill prepared. My mental bitch slaps and/or positive pep talks weren't working anymore. During my ascent up one of the hills, a lady was sitting on her lawn, cheering the runners on. She must have seen the despair in my eyes because she told me it leveled off after the stop sign. Well, it leveled off…for about .1 miles and then the two biggest hills were next.

I started wondering how I ever did not one, but two marathons and I vowed never to do another one in my lifetime. I was also trying to keep pace with a man who must have been 75. One thing doing races has taught me is never judge anyone by how they look or what age they are. I have had to run my heart out to beat a 10 year old in a 5K and a pretty overweight dude in a 10K. This time, it was the battle royale with the old man. The old man won! While he took the hills like a champ, my legs decided to turn into a jello-y mess. I figure I must have looked like a 75 year old woman shuffling up the hills. That is definitely how I felt!

The course wasn’t well marked so mile 9 went on FOR-EV-ER. There were no race markers after mile 9. This turned out being good and bad. Bad because I thought I might die if I saw another hill on mile 9 and great because seemingly out of nowhere a volunteer shouted “One mile to go”. Even better than hearing one more mile was the fact that it was all downhill. The ladies running next to me were ecstatic and we had a short conversation about how hilly the course was.

The last .4 miles of the race were into a headwind, but then there it was the finish line around the corner…and of course Jeremy standing on the corner cheering me on. Next time I expect my big glittery sign like I was promised!

Jeremy met up with me as I was cooling down and gave me a race wrap-up. The Kenyan won (big surprise) and if I cut 15 minutes off my time I would have a chance of placing. Yeah—I’ll work on that! Who knows…maybe next time…

Don't have my official time yet, but it was 1:47 and some seconds. I'm pretty stoked with it since the Carlsbad Half was almost entirely flat and my time for that was around 1:45. All in all, I am happy with my performance. Next race: Greenwich Biathon!!

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Update: Offical time & standing

214 out of 618 participants
16th (out of 71) in my age division F20-29 
1:47:21
averaged 8:12 min miles