Race Report: Rock 'n' Roll Arizona 1/2 Marathon

First the stats for the 1/2 Marathon:
21,462 Finishers
13,490 were Female (considerably more females than males finished the 1/2 marathon. I wonder why this is. The marathon had more male finishers.)
2216 in my division (F 30-34)

My chip time was 1:42:16, an average pace of 7:48/mile over the course of the 13.1 mile race.

I finished 1123 overall (Top 5.23%), 250 out of the female finishers (Top 1.85%), and 45 in my division (Top 2.03%).

As I mentioned at the end of my previous post, I was undertrained for this race. I knew this going into the race and I mention it because even though I ran well, I can't help but compare this race with my new "A Standard," the Rockford 1/2 Marathon that I finished in 1:32:32 last May. The fact of the matter is that I simply didn't make training a priority this fall and winter. Additionally, I stopped lifting weights and I think that really affected my performance in the later miles.

I've alway heard that the most important night of sleep is two nights before an event. This is obviously because the night before you are nervous and sleep poorly. Unfortunately, Sierra did not sleep well two night before the race, which meant, neither did I. Sierra slept rather wonderfully the night previous to the race, but as expected, I did not. My alarm was set for 5am, but I didn't make it that long. I nursed Sierra around 4:30 and gave up and got out of bed shortly after that. After eating some breakfast, I headed out to the race finish to park my car.

Let me just say, the race organizers do not get a good grade in signage for parking. The roads around the finish were all blocked off and there was no way to turn to get to where the map said the parking was. I finally found a parking spot after driving around in circles for 20 or 30 minutes. Sheesh! Then, I got on a school bus with 48 other runners to ride to the start. How long has it been since I've been on a school bus?! My brain was clearly not all fired up yet as I pondered if the bus would drop us back of in the same place ... then I realized we would all be running back!

By the time I got to the start line the marathon had already started (they started at 7:40, the 1/2 began at 8:30). There was an exceedingly long line of port-a-potties and it still wasn't enough because I really had to pee and the line seemed to be taking for-ev-er. Seriously! What are some people doing in the port-a-potty that takes them so long?! I don't understand!

Then I headed over to the exceedingly long line of UPS trucks who were there to take our gear back to the finish line for us. It was chilly without my sweatshirt, but I knew that wouldn't last long. I was in the first starting corral because of my predicted finish line I walked past blocks and blocks of runners heading to the front of the line. It's really amazing to see 21,000+ people lined up in the middle of the street. It always seems a touch crazy to me when I wake up before dawn to go pound the pavement, but it makes me feel better when I see there are so many other crazies out there!

The weather was lovely for the race. Cool and sunny and never getting too hot. The race started in downtown Phoenix and ran east, through Scottsdales and ending up in Tempe on the campus of ASU. There were lots of mountain views to enjoy and only a couple gradual hills. I saw two girls running in fluffy tu-tus and I also saw at least two people cutting the course. They came out of parking lots or between buildings, cleary cutting corners and definately not cool. I mean, they were near me in the pack, so it's not like they were going to set any records. They're only cheating themselves. What's the point?

I started out running between 7:35-7:40 pace and I was feeling pretty good. I tried to stay relaxed and smooth in my stride. During mile 5 I walked through a water stop and ate an energy gel and ended up around 7:55. I missed several mile markers after that, but ran 31:27 for miles 6-10, so just over 7:50 pace for those miles. At 10 miles, there's just a 5K left and that's when I should have really been able to crank down and bring it home but naturally that's where I really felt my lack of time in the gym. The final 3 miles were all over 8:00, falling around 8:10-8:20. Even though I definately felt some fatigue in my legs and I knew I was falling off my pace, I was happy when I saw my time. I would call this race a success. I felt good through the majority of the race, finished well overall and ended up with my 3rd best 1/2 marathon time (out of 7, and edging out my St. Louis '06 time by just 4 seconds).