This past
year I, Slick, signed up for four half marathons. The first was the DC Rock-n-Roll, second
was the inaugural Irongirl Half Marathon in Columbia, MD, the third was the Virginia Beach Rock-n-Roll, and the fourth was the San Antonio Rock-n-Roll. Due to a series of injuries (stress
fracture) from my training for the first one, I was unable to run at all in the
Irongirl, and after five months of no running yet still injuring myself again
(shin splint) I was only able to run a 5k at the Virginia Beach.
Which left me
determined to run the San Antonio, training or no training. So imagine my dismay when my daughter came home
early from Tae Kwon Do complaining of a stomach ache the night before we were to
leave for San Antonio. My husband put
our daughter to bed and I ran a couple of errands, during which I received a
frantic phone call that our darling girl had turned into the girl from “the
Exorcist” and was vomiting everywhere. I
then spent the next 7 hours holding her head, cleaning up spills and washing
every piece of bedding she owns. But it
was all worth it when at 2:30 am she informed me she felt better and would like
some water. With one hour sleep we were
able to make it to the airport in time for a stop at Jamba Juice before our
flight.
Packet
pick up is one of my favorite parts of the Rock n Roll Series. The Expo has so many free samples and the
latest in running/fitness products. You
can also score some nice swag. I won’t
bore you with a detailed list of all the swag, but will leave you guessing with
a picture of the most unusual item. My
husband won this item in the Brooks exhibit:
If you have
never been to a large running event then it might be difficult to fully
appreciate the energy that permeates the air before the race. The excitement of the thousands of other
runners and walkers can be felt well before the gun goes off.
Due to my
injuries, but mostly to not training, my goal was to finish the half with as
little damage to my body as possible.
This is what worked for me…I am not qualified to say that this would
work for anyone else. I decided to do
intervals of walking and running; five minutes running and two minutes
walking. To keep myself from getting
caught up in the momentum of the crowd, I purposely chose a slow song to start
the race with…Natasha Bedingfield’s “Pocket Full of Sunshine.” For those of you who are not aware, one of
the Rock-n-Roll Series Marathons claim to fame is that there is a band at every
mile and there is upbeat music at the beginning and a live performance at the
end.
San
Antonio Half and Full Marathon courses are pretty flat…as much as can be
expected, so it wasn’t hard to keep my intervals going. My lack of training really hit me around mile
8, my legs started to feel like
jelly. By mile 10 I knew I had to change
my intervals. I wasn’t out of breath,
but my legs were very mad at me…I added a minute to my walking and decreased a
minute on my running…4 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking. I was able to keep this up for most of the
rest of the race and was able to come in at 2:47. Not my best time, but I am very happy and
proud of myself.
Rock-n-Roll Bling
It must
have been something my daughter ate, because on Saturday she participated in
the ING Kids Rock fun run. She
brought home a bit of bling all her own.
Her Fun Run came with a free ticket to the San Antonio Zoo!
