A real race!

I wrote the bulk of this post the weekend after the run.  I wanted to edit it with new eyes and... it's taken almost a month to get back to it. 

Sometimes the post-run shower hurts more than the actual run.  When you're out of practice, that shower lets you know just where you forgot to protect yourself.  I actually had a female friend suggest a sports bra a few years back.  I'll chance physical pain due to not putting on enough Vaseline, thank you very much.  

It's all worth it to run my first in-person race in 11 months.  I ran a few virtual races last year, detailing the one we put on for the family here, and I'm sure I'll get to writing up the rest of my 2020 virtual races later.  The last actual race I ran was the 2020 Crazy Desert "Half Marathon" in San Angelo.  I shared in the My First DNF post that I'd planned on trying the 100k at Crazy Desert.  I DNFed a marathon so I decided to pull back to a 14 mile 1/2 marathon instead.

2020 Crazy Desert 1/2 photo credit: Trail Racing Over Texas

After putting on "quarantine weight" then actually getting COVID in early December, I decided that I needed something to train towards.  My initial idea was to finish that darned race from last year but apparently it's been cancelled. However, a race I'd considered last year WAS open and in person, Run Oak Island.  Not, it's not that Oak Island.  It's a bit south of Wilmington.  I figured I could get ready for a half marathon in 6 weeks and it was shown to be flat, so why not?

After choosing the race, I had the task of convincing my wife that we should combine Valentine's Day weekend with race weekend.  Luckily, the proximity to real live ocean beaches made it an easy sell.  

That solved, it was time to get to training.  I had fun training, tying it into my 1000 miles in 2021 goal.  The only hiccup I had was the amount of cold and rain, pushing me to the treadmill.  Might've been better served just toughing it out on the streets.

Believe it or not, North Carolina is a lot rainier than west Texas.  Writing this on Monday morning, it's been raining six days in a row now. As race day came closer, the forecast kept showing rain (even snow at one point but that quickly changed).  The race was forecasted to be upper 30s and rainy, some of the worst conditions I've raced in.  (maybe we'll debate the worst conditions to run in at a later date too).  Even packet pickup was an adventure, as it was held in a pavilion in the middle of the muddy, waterlogged park where the start/finish line would be.  We had to be careful on the drive there as the roads were covered in deep puddles all over the island.

Before getting into the race, I want to discuss the people that put it on, Coastal Race Productions.  As one of the few races I could even find, they must have been up against it to pull this thing off.  The CRP team had to comply, of course, with a myriad of COVID restrictions but I'm sure that there's such a hunger for live racing that all of the distances sold out.

Some of the signs showing the precautions. both photos credited to Coastal Race Productions

 They kept us updated with almost daily e-mails and videos on how to follow the guidelines so that the race could go off without a hitch.  We had to be masked up any time we weren't actively running on the course and had to maintain social distance when not on the course as well.  Furthermore, there would be no pre-race packet pickup or post-race medal ceremony so that people wouldn't congregate close together.  It must have been maddening trying to maintain semi-normalcy in the face of all the changes, but they handled it well.  

Speaking of precautions, I got my 2nd shot on the Wednesday before the race and it took me out.  I missed work Thursday because of how crappy I felt and Friday morning wasn't a whole lot better.  Luckily, it wore off by Friday afternoon and I knew I'd be good to go come race time.

First flat runner I've laid out in quite some time

Our hotel was about 45 minutes away so it was an early wakeup call and some crappy hotel coffee before hitting the road -

K, bye

Luckily, Mila stayed in the hotel this time as spectators weren't allowed.  That, and it was going to be 38 and raining the entire time so she'd be better off in a king size bed.

I got there just in time to take care of my pre-race rituals and step into the chute with less than a minute before go time.  Luckily, as I was dressed to run, not stand.  While the race wasn't huge, the starting chute was fairly narrow.  This was compounded by the fact that it was thoroughly covered by water.  If we ran 2 across in the center, it was only an inch or two deep.  However, on the edges of the path, it looked to be about four feet deep.

Hey, those are my legs in the center there (photo credit: Coastal Race Productions)

I caught up to the 2:00 pacers fairly quickly and decided to run with them for a bit.  After a couple turns and maybe a kilometer, we came up on the road that runs along the beach access and row of beach houses.  There was a berm so we could only catch glimpses of the ocean but I was excited to see even more water.

photo credit Coastal Race Productions

I was having fun, spurred on by Bert Kreischer "celebrating his power" on his podcast for more than half the race.  I always appreciate and thank volunteers.  During that race, with that weather, I appreciated them all the more.  I was surprised that there were even people outside their beach houses cheering and holding signs in the cold rain.  There was only a handful, but that was still pretty neat.  

As far as my racing, I didn't know too much what to expect.  My last road half was over 2 years ago and I finished that in 2:03.  I planned for 2 during this race but wouldn't have been too surprised if I blew up 10 miles in and limped in a 2:15.

At this point, I know to expect that body parts will hurt while I'm running hard.  My right hip started to show up early, maybe halfway.  Initially I was worried it'd progress into a pain like my DNF but it never got that bad.  There was some pain in the my right ankle about 9 miles in, but that went away fairly quickly.  My knees were hurting starting around mile 11, but that pain too went away.  (though they were sore the rest of the weekend)  

I was able to be fairly consistent through the first 7 miles or so, only walking while struggling to get down cold Gu a couple times.  However, just before mile 9 I noticed that I'd slowed down enough that I wasn't likely to go sub 2 AND I was about to go up about the only hill on the course, so I walked it.  I think that 30-45 second walk break really helped, as I felt energized and was able to speed up for the rest of the race.  It was unfortunately not quite enough to get in under 2, as I came across officially at 2:00:51.  (My watch had me finishing the 1/2 marathon distance at 2:00:04 but the course wasn't finished)

Looking so so good coming to the finish (photo credit Coastal Race Productions)

I was happy to get in a real race, even if the weather was abysmal.  It took pretty much the entire ride back to the hotel in my heated seat AND a shower to warm up, but it was worth it.  Thank you again to Coastal Race Productions for putting on the race and I will definitely be looking forward to future races.

Oh yeah, that's why the post run shower hurt