Pittsburgh Half Marathon Recap

The big recap is finally here! Thanks so much to all of you who commented on my late night post last night. After some much-needed rest and relaxation today and yesterday, I finally have some time to properly recap my big race weekend.

I ran the Pittsburgh Half Marathon with one of my oldest friends Katie, who is getting married next month, and her friend from college - Emily. Emily works in Pittsburgh and was nice enough to pick up our bags on Friday, so we could travel stress free on Saturday up to the hotel the night before the race.

We checked into the Double Tree around 9 p.m., got our belongings in order and took a few moments to check out the goodies in our bag!

We received:

• a very nice t-shirt
• bag
• various coupons
• Energy Beans
• NuGo granola bars
• Deodrant
• Wrist Bracelet (the kind that snap!)
• Very nice socks
• A water bottle
• and our race number

My lucky number fro the race was 6973.

This is the first time I’ve ever been in a race in which you use “shoe chips.” These bracelets track your distance and time throughout the race. I thought they’d track several splits, but I later heard from friends who received text alerts that they only received one in the middle and at the end. Still, pretty cool technology! Racing has really changed since six years ago – or else this is just the biggest race I’ve ever competed in!

I loved the T-shirt. So very Pittsburgh! Mine is a little bit, but it will be nice to sleep in and remember this weekend

Katie, Emily and I all went to bed around 10:30 p.m. and none of us could sleep! I think we had some major jitters the night before the race. We set our alarms for 5:30 a.m. and none of us fell asleep until 2:30 a.m.! That’s right – we were running on three hours of sleep!

I don’t have pictures from the morning before the race because I had nowhere to put my camera. I couldn’t find Bill or Cat – and I didn’t want to mess with trying to meet up for a picture, so we just went with ourselves and nothing else. I ended up ditching an old long sleeve t-shirt on the road!

Katie, Emily and I did a 6-minute warm up followed by some stretching. We went to hit up the bathroom before the race and there was a HUGE line. We waited for nearly fifteen minutes and each went to the bathroom only a minute before the race began! I’m really happy I waited.

This is the first race in which I followed a pacer. There was a boy holding a 11:27/mile pacer that clocked you in with a finish time of 2:30. I stood right behind him for the beginning of the race.

Here is just a sample of what 10,500 people look like at the beginning of the race. I’m not in this shot – just some video Bill took while waiting for me at the starting line!

Because of how far back I was at the beginning, it took me nearly FIVE MINUTES to get to the starting line. Once at the start, the chip on my shoe was activated so I’d have an accurate race time at the end. I was so nervous at the beginning of the race! Katie and Emily went up to the 8:00/mile pacer, so I was back by myself. I will admit that I almost teared up between the music, the excitement of the runners and the crowd.

Miles 1-5: Honestly, these first five miles I felt like I was in a dream! For starters, I was watching the sidelines looking for Bill and Cat and took them completely by surprise! Hence, no photos. They were both startled. I ran upset them, noticed them and said “hey guys!” and they said, “Oh, Rose! Hey! Go Rose!” It was really cute.

It took me roughly an hour to run the first five miles. I felt really good the entire time. I decided against wearing my iPod so I just listened to the conversation around me and admired the sights of Pittsburgh. It was like a trip down memory lane – I saw places I haven’t been to in a while (the Strip District, up near the Art Institute where my stepbrother went to school, near the Steelers stadium – I think) and remembered old times with friends and family. Around mile two, a girl I went to college with jogged up beside me and we chatted for a while. I haven’t seen her in nearly three years! It was random running into each other like that.

Miles 6-8: I still felt good for miles 6-8. I was still running right behind the pacer. By this point, I had jogged through a couple water stations and sipped mostly on water only. I did have power ade at one of the stations – but didn’t like it. It was so sweet and actually made me more thirsty. I tried Emily’s method of bending my cup to a point. I never walked through a water station. I jogged through all of them, at a very slow speed of course. Because I was walking, I ended up passing a bunch of people – which made me feel good The only problem that occurred between mile 6-8 was that I got a rock in my shoe! I felt it go in, tried to get it out with my heel and it only went in further. I actually ran with a rock digging into my heel for HALF OF THE RACE, which resulted in a major blister I didn’t discover until late last night!

Mile 8: The first hill. By this point, I was starting to go a little slower. The pacer was way ahead of me and I was no longer right near him. We went up the first hill of the race that led us across a bridge. I was REALLY slowing down. I felt like walking – but I told myself, no. You are going to run this entire thing, no matter how slow you go. Right around mile 9, it started to rain. All I could think was – oh my goodness. I still have four more miles and it’s raining. Ugh! I saw a water station and decided to try one of my energy gels. I’m not sure whether it had an effect on my running. I honestly hated the texture in my mouth, so I only had half.

Miles 9-12: The crowds picked up around this point on Carson Street which made the ending much easier. By this point, I was much slower than in the beginning. The pack that I was running with the entire time either started to fade or went faster. At certain points there were very few people around me. One man even remarked from the sidelines, “These are the people we really need to cheer for. The straglers!” Gee, thanks, dude. I think that little comment made me want to finish strong.

Miles 12-13.1: I knew I was getting closer to the finish, and I just wanted this thing to be DONE WITH IT. People from the sidelines were cheering, “You’re almost finished!” And I kept thinking, “Yeah, but how much farther do I really have?” I saw a guy on the sidewalk from a band that plays at the bar I used to go to in college but he didn’t recognize me. Several people I was running near started to really slow down. I was starting to work on adrenaline. I wanted to tell them, “Come on, we have one more mile! Let’s do this!” But I didn’t say anything.

When I reached the 13th mile marker, I saw the ending was only around the curve. I decided to really kick it into high gear. I knew I only had to push it hard for .1 miles, and I knew I could do that. I really wanted a strong finish. My legs were about to give out, but I didn’t care. It was so close!

Here’s a little visualization of the ending curve – where Cat and Bill were sitting.

There I am – in slow motion. I looked surprisingly better than I felt!

Here I come and go – The ending clock says my finish was 2:42, but because my chip started five minutes after the official start, my time was actually 2:35:23.

Meanwhile, about FORTY MINUTES before I finished, my friend Katie was finishing up her race.

There she is – clocking in around 1:49. Great job, Katie!

Walking through the finish line and into the convention center was so dream like. As soon as I slowed down, everything in my body left me. I felt really light-headed and just wanted to sit down. I knew I needed to eat, so I grabbed a bagel that took me forever to eat. I saw Katie’s mom on the sidelines, and she led me into the Convention Center. I decided to get that darn rock out of my shoe, and as soon as I did – my calf muscle tightened up, and I felt like I was having a charlie horse! I actually couldn’t put my leg down flat. I think being on my toes the entire race made my foot really cramp up. It went away within a minute but really hurt!

Cat and Bill finally found me in the Convention Center. I felt and looked so gross!

Katie and I – victorious! Gosh, I look kinda pale.

And there you have it! My race recap in a nutshell.

So what have I learned?

• My body has the capability to run a half marathon!
• All the dedication and training leading up to this helped immensely.
• I am REALLY a runner again!

Special congrats to everyone who ran in the Pittsburgh Marathon or Half Marathon – including Aimee! Also to Andrea who ran her first half in Ohio this weekend. And good luck to a very special group of ladies who I’ve been emailing along my journey and who will be running their first half-marathons in the next month or two:

Andrea

Allison

Sarah

Heather

Special thanks to all of you who have been tracking my progress and helping me along this training journey. I couldn’t have done it without your advice, comments and support. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BELIEVING IN ME!

PS: If I can run a half-marathon – anyone can! All it takes is determination and dedication!