Sean and I ran the Come Run With Santa 5k at Findlay Chevrolet a few months ago and just after crossing the finish line some race promoters handed us fliers advertising the Mustang 50th Anniversary Half Marathon and 5k the following April! Being Mustang owners/drivers as well as enthusiasts, we had every intention of entering the race so we saved the flier and kept it in mind til spring!
April came around much faster than anticipated and we were far from ready! We wanted to run the half marathon since the 5k didn't offer medals for finishers and we had to have medals for this one! Sean had run a lot of half and full marathons in the past but not in a long time. I'd done one half marathon before but had never run more than 5 consecutive miles before having to walk. We planned to enter several more races before April but we got too busy and just didn't get around to it. Luckily, we started playing dance games a bit again a few weeks before this race so we weren't as out of shape come race time as we had been in during a lot of the previous two years. We even jogged a couple 2/3 mile laps around our neighborhood in the week preceeding the race and went to Sunset Park a few miles from our house for a quick 1.82 mile jog around one of the trails there the day before the race as well. It wasn't much but it was better than nothing.
Time to register for the race was running short so we finally got our acts together and signed up. We even convinced Danny to let us sign him up for the 5k too! It wasn't a cheap race but it was worth it for the experience, the t-shirts (for 5k runners) and technical shirts (for half marathon runners), the finishers medals (for half marathon finishers), and just to be part of this once in a lifetime event! Also, each half marathon runner got a free entry into the raffle for a brand new, convertible 2014 Shelby Mustang GTS! (Raffle tickets for 5k runners, race spectators, and other event attendees were also available for purchase separately but the best deal was still with the half marathon entry purchase.)
Packet pickup was Friday, the day before the Saturday race, in the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Sean and I picked packets up for both of us and Danny too. Inside were our shirts, race bibs, last minute race info, directions and mapd for the event, and Mustang 50th Anniversary souvenir magnets. Course maps and extra magnets were also available so we picked those up too.
The shirts!:
Race day arrived before we knew it! It was the night before and we knew we needed an early sleep to wake up in time to drive all the way out to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in time for our 7am race and Danny's 7:20am 5k. Sean and I made sure we had plenty to eat and drink by making a delicious banana and mandarin orange smoothie and cooking up some boiled fish, meatballs, and rice for dinner.
After food, we decided to get some sleep. We slept deeply for a few hours but sometime in the middle of the night we woke up and just couldn't get back to sleep again for the next couple of hours. It was a little tough to get out of bed when our alarm went off at 4:40am but we'd gotten a reasonable amount of sleep and managed to get up. We washed up, got dressed, shared a couple of bananas and a protein bar for breakfast, had a few creatine pills Sean found in his old stuff, drank some Powerade, and chewed up some chewable glucose tablets we found at Walmart a few days prior. Then, at 5:30am, we hopped in the Mustang and drove out to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Danny following behind us in his Mazda 3.
When we got to the speedway, we had about an hour to kill before the half marathon start at 7am so we took a few pics, walked from the parking lot to the race start area, admired the convertible 2014 Shelby Mustang GTS raffle prize car (sitting at the start/finish line), and stretched out a little bit.
Danny and Sean next to our Mustang just after parking at the speedway:
Race time rolled around before we knew it! Danny still had another 20 minutes before the 5k start so he waved Sean and me goodbye and got a quick video of the half marathon start as we took off.
As usual, Sean started near the front of the race partly because he prefers it and also because he's pretty fast. I started near the back because I prefer passing people up to being passed and I'm also not a strong distance runner. The race was about 3 minutes in when I finally crossed the start line but it didn't matter because places and times were recorded and determined based on chip time - not gun time.
I knew running 13.1 miles would be a hell of a challenge for me and I really had no idea what my pace for such a distance should be so I held back as much as I could, trying to set and maintain a 10 minute mile pace. Unfortunately, I soon realized that not only was a 10 minute mile pace more than I could probably maintain (assuming I even COULD run 13.1 consecutive miles) but I'd accidentally run my first mile in 9 minutes - slow for most but a big mistake for me. I got the pace down to the 10 minute mile I'd been trying for after that but by the 3rd mile I found myself slowing down to an 11 minute mile. Being so inexperienced with distance running, I'd planned to run the whole race without stopping at the water stations or drinking anything. The day was heating up fast though and it wasn't long before I realized I desperately needed some fluids both on and in me. I started grabbing water cups without stopping as I jogged by the water stations. At first, I was just pouring the water over my head, which really helped to cool me down and gave me a boost each time I did it, but eventually I decided to try and drink a bit too (though it was hard to do since I didn't want to stop) and that helped a lot as well.
Though I spent a lot of the race too tired to thoroughly enjoy it and take it all in, one of the great things about the race was the scenery - the middle-of-nowhere mountains and desert, the speedway itself, and the seemingly infinite cars. The countless Mustangs, both classic and new including the raffle price car, they had lining the route and driving past us nearby really helped to keep us runners motivated. There were so many and they were so gorgeous!
Eventually, I reached drink stations that had Powerade so I grabbed that and got some of my electrolytes back. I ran mile 4 in another 10 minutes but from there it was all downhill. I soon realized I was in trouble and tried to adjust my running style and strides and progressively slow my pace accordingly but halfway between miles 6 and 7 I wasn't sure I could keep running. I forced myself not to stop til I had to though and just continued to gradually jog slower til I really couldn't continue any form of jogging anymore. After awhile, people started speedwalking past me. Ouch. My breathing was actually fine. I hadn't expected that since it was usually the first thing to go in races but I guess that's because I'm better acquainted with short distance than long and in short distance I've always gone all in with everything. In long distance, I have to pace myself to try and make my inexperienced legs last. Anyway, I got about a quarter mile past the 8 mile marker when my legs finally quit on me. I couldn't physically get my feet off the ground to jog and could barely stand up to walk but I pushed on, walking slowly at first and then picking the pace back up to a fast walk as I regained a little energy and experimented with different muscles to use to get me to the finish line. I walked the next 3/4 of a mile til I reached the 9 mile marker. Then I tried alternating brief jogs with some walking til I got close to the 10 mile marker and found Sean waiting for me! He'd run about 11 to 11.5 miles at his half marathon pace and was likely to get a pretty decent time for him but he said the sun was just beating down on him and making him way too hot, which he's still not used to, so he decided to come back to find me and finish the rest of the race with me instead!! We spent the last few miles walking and jogging at my pace, chatting, and stopping for a bit of liquid at the drink stations. My legs were SCREAMING at me but we pushed on. I was having a good time regardless and we kept setting points in the distance to jog to before having to stop and walk for a bit again. Finally, we had the finish line in sight! I didn't have the energy to start running at first but as we got closer I was able to pick up the pace til we were sprinting through the finish!
As Sean and I finally crossed the finish line, I could barely stay on my feet long enough to get my finisher's medal but Sean helped keep me up and when we finally received our big, heavy, sexy Mustang medals it all felt so worth it!! Such a great reward for what was, for me, such a huge challenge. I'd even broken new personal records: my longest time running without stopping (about 1hr 35mins) and my furthest distance running without stopping (about 8.25 miles)!
We spent the next 45 minutes or so stretching and laying around in the grass. Since he'd finished long before us, Danny had already gone home but planned to meet back up with us later. Sean went to get a few photos and videos of everything but I was in too much pain to follow so I just laid around trying to recover.
At 11am, they announced the raffle winner for the convertible 2014 Shelby Mustang GTS!! The winner, as later posted on their website as well: Andrea Kessel!
No comments:
Post a Comment