Gettysburg Blue Gray Half Marathon Recap Part 1 - Waking Up!

The Gettysburg Blue Gray Half Marathon was, indeed, a very memorable experience.
Waking up - My alarm was set for 5am, as the race started at 8am. So I figured with waking up at 5 I can hydrate and have plenty of time to get ready. My wife was getting off at 7am, so we (My buddy also running the race that stayed over, Ricky) were going to go right when she got home. It only takes about 20 minutes to get there. Well................hahaha, I heard the alarm go off at 5am, but I went back to sleep. My wife calls me at 635am and wakes me up, saying she was on her way home. I said "Oh Crap"! Well.....not exactly those words, but you know what I mean! I wake my buddy up and we were scramming around trying to get ready and what not. When my wife got home she went directly to Face Book and found out that the race was postponed until 9am. Good Grief!
Have you ever woke up late for a race, or completely missed one due to sleeping in instead?

PS, I don't really like creating long posts, so please come back in a few days for more exciting stories of my latest and greatest race of all time..........really. Hope you enjoy the one of many photos. This was my first race with snow, but more on that later.....

Racing Mistakes Volume I: A Fatal Pacing Error

The Harrisburg Half Marathon was good. I had a great time of it despite some issues that I had with the Gingerbread Man and all. However I must confess with myself the big no no that I did any way. I ran like a demon the first 3 miles of the race and paid for my mistake quickly. After 3 miles, I slowed down quite a bit after the starting excitement wore off. Last year, I remember just chilling out the first mile or two, and then getting faster and faster. Well, this year was the opposite. Every race is different I suppose. Well, this Sunday I have a chance to gain some solidarity with my running. I have another Half (Gettysburg Blue Gray Half) Marathon to do. This time I wont take off like an angry ant, but rather start off in a way that I will finish strong. I think sometimes I get carried away with pacing and times and what not. Im just going to start smart and finish having given it my all, but not during the first 3 miles. Hopefully, I will not allow myself to make the same fatal pacing error again,.......well, this Sunday anyways.

2 Week Training Program

I have another Half Marathon Oct. 30th. Its the Gettysburg Blue Gray Half. Lots of rolling hills. Yeah, well I know what rolling hills mean after I did the Full in May.
So, I used my last Half Marathon in Harrisburg (retrospective) as a nice tempo'd Long Run, minus the hills I will have to tackle on Oct. 30th. My 2 week Training program consists of losing a bit more (2 lbs?) weight, which I have already due to the previous Half, and tapering. And when the gun goes off, we will see how it goes.
After this Half, I will then train on a 30 week program, in which the first 12 weeks is devoted to speed training and the likes. Gotta love that. Next year, I will be ramping up the mileage, to say the least. As far as mileage and my weight loss goals, seems I am in the same boat as last year, but this next year will be different. It just has to be.

Harrisburg Half Marathon 2011 Race Recap

Last Sunday, Oct. 9th, was the 15th annual Harrisburg Half Marathon. In retrospect, my training was not too bad, but could have been better. At the beginning of the year, I was planning on running a sub 2 hour time, but as time passed by, I realized that was not due to happen. So, remaining optimistic, I was going to be happy with a time between 2:05 and 2:10 beating last year's time of 2:13.

Being a new runner that I am, I am still learning a lot about it. Sometimes you have good days, and sometimes you have bad days for no particular reason at all. Race Day was one of those days where at first, things started to make sense (at first).

The weather was perfect.

I started at a pretty good comfortable pace just seconds over my goal race pace of 9:30 per mile. At mile 3 I was feeling pretty good. Afterwards, my stomach started to talk to me. Oh No, I said to myself. It must be the taquitos I had last night. lol. (Why did I eat those?) So At around mile 4.5 I had to stop by the Portable Toilet due to a visit from the GingerBread Man. Afterwards, and after wasting over 10 minutes in there, I didn't feel like moving. I was upset. But after a half a mile or so, I got going again, but no where near my PB race pace.

At mile 9 my right hip started to feel weird, so I just took it easy and just enjoyed myself and the other runners. I made it okay, and felt a great sense of accomplishment still in the time of 2:24 and some change DESPITE my curcumstances. Sometimes, you just have those days were everything does not work out accordingly.

I can blame myself for making a poor choice in diet, or whatever, but the truth is that I had a great time of it regardless, and enjoyed it 100%. I might have some restrictions (life) that may hold me back from running as much as I want. So be it. You just have to learn to deal with it and in time develop a system that works for YOU. In 3 weeks time I have the Blue Gray Half Marathon in Gettysburg, PA. There will always be another race. There will also be another Portable Toilet too I suppose.