On Saturday October 3, 2009 at 7:00AM the gun went of and I started to run my first Half Marathon.
The Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon!!!
The race weekend began on Friday morning. Chuck, my Mom, and me piled into the car and headed to Jacksonville, FL. The 4 hour trip flew by since we were all hyped up, talking and having fun. We arrived in Jax right at lunch time and went by the 1st Place Sports running store to pick up our packets, race shirts & goodies.
Then we embarked on the adventure of finding lunch. We wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes, but I had no idea how to get there. Finally getting directions, actually GETTING our car into the parking lot of the restaurant was a different story… but we did make our way there. Sweet Tomatoes is a delicious salad bar, soup, bread, potato, pasta, and dessert buffet style place. It is sooooo yummy. Perfect for pre race carbs, but not too heavy either.
After filling up on a late lunch/early dinner we headed to the hotel to check in. We stayed at the Wyndham Riverwalk Hotel, which was the host hotel for the race so the rates were reasonable. The hotel is nice and clean too.
It was early to bed for us Friday night. We were in bed by 7:30 and asleep by 8PM. The alarm was set for 4:30 and I wanted to be sure to get plenty of rest.
4:30AM came dark and early. We got up, showered to wake up and warm up our muscles, drank some coffee and had a protein bar. We drove over the river to the start line by the Jax Jauguars stadium. We were at the starting area soon after 6AM. Picked up our champion chip timers and wandered around waiting for 7:00 to roll around. Sure enough… it did!
After very recently having an introductory lesson from my new running coach Sam… I had a very simple race plan for finishing today’s run in right at 2 hours. I wanted to start off at a 9:30 min/mile for approx. 4 miles. Then go to a 9:15 min/mile for approx 4 miles. Then run the last 5 miles at a 9 min/mile. That SHOULD have put me in right at 2 hours like I wanted. Simple, Right?
The Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon!!!
The race weekend began on Friday morning. Chuck, my Mom, and me piled into the car and headed to Jacksonville, FL. The 4 hour trip flew by since we were all hyped up, talking and having fun. We arrived in Jax right at lunch time and went by the 1st Place Sports running store to pick up our packets, race shirts & goodies.
Then we embarked on the adventure of finding lunch. We wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes, but I had no idea how to get there. Finally getting directions, actually GETTING our car into the parking lot of the restaurant was a different story… but we did make our way there. Sweet Tomatoes is a delicious salad bar, soup, bread, potato, pasta, and dessert buffet style place. It is sooooo yummy. Perfect for pre race carbs, but not too heavy either.
After filling up on a late lunch/early dinner we headed to the hotel to check in. We stayed at the Wyndham Riverwalk Hotel, which was the host hotel for the race so the rates were reasonable. The hotel is nice and clean too.
It was early to bed for us Friday night. We were in bed by 7:30 and asleep by 8PM. The alarm was set for 4:30 and I wanted to be sure to get plenty of rest.
4:30AM came dark and early. We got up, showered to wake up and warm up our muscles, drank some coffee and had a protein bar. We drove over the river to the start line by the Jax Jauguars stadium. We were at the starting area soon after 6AM. Picked up our champion chip timers and wandered around waiting for 7:00 to roll around. Sure enough… it did!
After very recently having an introductory lesson from my new running coach Sam… I had a very simple race plan for finishing today’s run in right at 2 hours. I wanted to start off at a 9:30 min/mile for approx. 4 miles. Then go to a 9:15 min/mile for approx 4 miles. Then run the last 5 miles at a 9 min/mile. That SHOULD have put me in right at 2 hours like I wanted. Simple, Right?
Well…. Let’s see. Starting off, I felt WONDERFUL and FANTASTIC. Downtown Jacksonville is neat and pretty and the race atmosphere was fun. So, I had to MAKE myself SLOW DOWN for the first mile. Then we ran over the Main Street Bridge, which I had to slow myself down going up, and of course running back down. Not too much further down the course we ran over the Acosta Bridge, which is quite a higher bridge (81 feet over the water). That one wasn’t easy, but not hard either. After coming down the second bridge I just set myself on “cruise control” and focused on maintaining my planned paces for each mile.
Things were looking good… really just mile after mile passing by. Until about mile 11 my pace slowed and there wasn’t much I could do to make myself speed up to my goal of the 9 min/mile. It was getting Hot. I was getting Tired. Nothing impossible, I just could feel the amount of time I had been running wearing on me. Then we had to run over a “cat walk” to cross over the river under a big bridge. It was at an incline, then we had to run down four flights of a spiral ramp which zapped some energy. At mile 12 I knew my hopes of getting the race finished in less than 2 hours was O-V-E-R…. unless I was going to push out a 6 minute mile. Uh, nope… the sun was glaring in my face, I was soaked with sweat… and just plain Tired. So I concentrated on the last mile telling myself “In 9 minutes you’ll be able to say you ran a half marathon”….. “In 8 minutes you’ll be able to say you ran a half marathon” and so on. The finish line was hidden. Most of the last mile was down a straight street that you could see all the way down to the end of. But at the last minute the course turned and you are guided onto a grassy park area where the finish line awaited.
The finish line was neat, they had tanks set up as an archway to run under and Marines were putting the medals on our necks. We got a very nice glass with the USMC emblem on it. Let’s not talk about how I though for about 10 minutes I was gonna puke up Gatorade and a GU pack. But, the nausea passed and I ate a granola bar. Unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy the free post race beer. No Way could I stomach that! I think Chuck had my share.
Our official times were: 10K Chip Gun
(Age Grp-32 out of 97) Kathy Wilkins, 31, Byron, GA 58:20 2:05:30 2:05:56
(Age Grp-16 out of 63) Cheryl Coody, 52, Byron, GA 59:08 2:08:16 2:08:43
(Age Grp-63 out o f 88) Chuck Whitaker, 43, Byron, GA 1:00:13 2:13:14 2:13:40
We didn’t stick around the post race celebration long. I was soaked with sweat and I wanted to pop a few blisters on my toes that were killing me. Back at the hotel I had the BEST hot shower and then relaxed on the bed for about 15 minutes.
Later that day we went to the Jacksonville Running Company to visit Josh Myers. After getting some new running gear, we went to Wild Wings for lunch/dinner. We ate tons of food and wings and drank some great cold beer!
Saturday night we walked from the hotel to the Jacksonville Landing across the river. It was a nice night out, they had a band playing and everyone was outside enjoying the weather and beautiful scenery.
We still managed to get to bed early again, since we were worn out from the race. Sunday morning we were up early to run a 4 mile recovery run, before checking out of the room then heading back to Byron.
The finish line was neat, they had tanks set up as an archway to run under and Marines were putting the medals on our necks. We got a very nice glass with the USMC emblem on it. Let’s not talk about how I though for about 10 minutes I was gonna puke up Gatorade and a GU pack. But, the nausea passed and I ate a granola bar. Unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy the free post race beer. No Way could I stomach that! I think Chuck had my share.
Our official times were: 10K Chip Gun
(Age Grp-32 out of 97) Kathy Wilkins, 31, Byron, GA 58:20 2:05:30 2:05:56
(Age Grp-16 out of 63) Cheryl Coody, 52, Byron, GA 59:08 2:08:16 2:08:43
(Age Grp-63 out o f 88) Chuck Whitaker, 43, Byron, GA 1:00:13 2:13:14 2:13:40
We didn’t stick around the post race celebration long. I was soaked with sweat and I wanted to pop a few blisters on my toes that were killing me. Back at the hotel I had the BEST hot shower and then relaxed on the bed for about 15 minutes.
Later that day we went to the Jacksonville Running Company to visit Josh Myers. After getting some new running gear, we went to Wild Wings for lunch/dinner. We ate tons of food and wings and drank some great cold beer!
Saturday night we walked from the hotel to the Jacksonville Landing across the river. It was a nice night out, they had a band playing and everyone was outside enjoying the weather and beautiful scenery.
We still managed to get to bed early again, since we were worn out from the race. Sunday morning we were up early to run a 4 mile recovery run, before checking out of the room then heading back to Byron.
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