Glass City Owens Corning Half Marathon

Heading into the Glass City half...

Good things:

1.) Weather forecast called for 50s and dry.

2.) I slept all night Saturday.

3.) No pre-race nervous poops or fits of tears.

Bad things:

1.) It rained. A lot.

2.) I did not Not one of the 6 of us packed a change of shoes or a towel.

3.) I woke up with a migraine.

Those who know me know that migraines for me are not just really bad headaches with sensitivity to light and sound and an upset stomach. No, no, no--when Krista gets a migraine, Krista suffers through stages:

Stage 1: Constant blind spots that pretty much keep me from being able to see anything for about 30 to 40 minutes.

Stage 2: Feeling of a nail being driven into a localized spot on my head, which moves from migraine to migraine, lasting anywhere from one hour to an entire day. For the first hour or so, I tend to poop. A lot.

Stage 3: This one actually begins about 20 minutes into Stage 2. I feel nauseated, occasionally leading to dry-heaving, for a few hours.

Fortunately I had prepared all of my gear and goodies the night before: bib was attached to my shorts, outfit was out and ready to go, and my post-race dry clothing bag was packed*. I stayed in bed an extra 15 minutes until about 5:15, brushed my teeth in the dark (with Joe's assistance), got dressed, stopped at Speedway for some ginger ale, and off to the University of Toledo we were.

We arrived after sitting in race traffic for a good five to ten minutes. The cops seemed to do a great job of attempting to control the flow of traffic. Unfortunately, there were some dummies who screwed things up for the rest of us. If there is a barricade blocking a road that is the freaking start of the race, you should not attempt to drive through it. Nevertheless, we were parked with about 40 minutes to spare. I booked it into Savage Arena to poop, which I usually do first thing in the morning, but if you read about the stages of the migraine, then it makes sense.

We got a lot of love for our shirts.

Team Non-Elite Team Glowstick gathered, planted ourselves just in front of the 8:12/mile pace group, and shortly after 7:00AM the music was blaring, I was fist-pumping, and we were off. There was light rain, but I figured it would be gone quickly, namely because every weather forecaster in the city of Toledo guaranteed that the chance of rain Sunday morning was very low, and that it would likely only be the marathoners dealing with it after 9:00AM. I should have gone into meteorology because they get paid to be wrong all the time.

Our group's goal was to finish in 1:45 (not my idea, but I was game for the challenge), which would mean maintaining an 8:00/mile pace. After mile 1, we did a really good job of holding that pace. Around mile 5 I did want to back off, but because it wasn't due to injury or even my migraine, which I had completely forgotten by the time we started (ginger ale + endorphins from running = kick-ass pain-reliever), I kept on going.

Mile 1: 8:25

2: 7:58

3: 8:00

4: 7:59

5: 7:58

I only brought one Clif Shot with me to take around mile 7; in retrospect, I wish that I would have planned to have taken two. I got the whole thing down in two consecutive gulps, took a sip of water, and managed to keep it all down. For the next mile, I did a lot of thinking about running the full last year. It's at mile 8.5ish in Wildwood where the half runners split off from the full. I thought about how great I felt at that point last year, and I was actually kind of sad that I was more than halfway finished. The marathoners eventually make their way back to that point, so the final 4.5ish miles are the same for the half and full. As I reached miles 9, 10, and 11, I thought about how challenging it was to be on that path last year, passing the markers for miles 22, 23, and 24.

I wanted to push harder, but I couldn't get past how badly it sucked to be soaking wet. Those damned weathermen!

Mile 6: 8:04

7: 8:02

8: 8:05

9: 7:59

10: 8:07

I didn't catch a second wind, but I started to lighten up as we neared UT's campus. Despite the weather, there was a phenomenal crowd of spectators at the campus end of the University Parks Trail. By the time we made it there, Joe had hit an incredible flow and was distancing himself farther and farther ahead of us. I wanted to be able to catch up with him, but it didn't bother me that I didn't because I was so freaking proud of him. The race has an awesome end in the Glass Bowl, and as I approached its entrance I could hear Joe's name announced when he finished. I shouted, "THAT'S MY HUSBAND!", which got laughter and cheers from the people lining the route.

And finally, before I knew it, I was on the field, hoping to not slip on the wet turf, crossing the finish mat.

1:46:12--A 2+ minute PR!

And Joe? Joe PRed by more than 5 minutes!!!!!

Sorry for all of those exclamation points. I am clearly still very excited about it! I am waiting on official photos to show up online. In the meantime, here's a real keeper of me and Tammy. Of note is the fact that one of her legs was numb and she thought she was going to puke, but I felt fine. You'd think it had been the other way around from the looks of this one...

Tammy: I'm so pretty!
Krista: KILL ME NOW!

*About that post-race dry clothing bag. We were all wet and subsequently miserable after the race. Like a group of weird swingers, we packed into the Dave's Elite Runners trailer (don't ask how or why), covered one another with mylar blankets as privacy curtains, and changed into our dry clothes. Unfortunately, since not one of us thought to bring a towel, we were just getting our new dry clothes wet. Also, all of us DID remember to pack a dry pair of socks, but we all put on our wet race shoes over them. Is this what hipsters call "a fail"?