May 15th Rockford Half Marathon

Cutting to the chase...I was very happy with my half marathon personal best of 1:45.  In 2009 and 2010 after the winter Survivor trail series I had run the half injured and my best was last year's 1:53.  I'll take the eight minute improvement!  :)

There were changes for this year's course and for me they were good.  The course itself was different and without going into detail I liked it much better than previous years.  I liked that the last several miles before the YMCA we could run on the bike path next to the river.  They also changed some of the roads that we ran on and it broke up the monotony. Previous races had long straight stretches with slight inclines. Much better this year.  I think it also helped to reduce Police coverage as we did not run on major roads such as North Second Street and we did not have to cross Riverside Blvd. in Loves Park since we ran underneath the Riverside Bridge on the path.  Good move.

Also new this year was the addition of Pace Groups.  The pace groups were designed to have one official pacer for each of several different finishing times.  The pace group in which I ran consisted of around ten runners.  It was interesting, the idea that you ran with the group which was pacing a time that you wanted to finish by.  Running with the group gave us a sense of togetherness.  We talked without having to keep the pace on an individual basis.  It felt more like a group training run and the time passed more quickly.

The pace group was scheduled to take us up through twelve miles at which time any full marathoners would continue on with the leader while those of us running the half would turn off at twelve and continue on to the finish.

I ran with the group for the first seven miles at which I began feeling like I could run a little faster pace.  I gradually increased my speed and ran ahead.  I think because we started out at a slower more manageable pace I had more energy for miles seven thru eleven.  I held the faster pace and only slowed a little from mile twelve to the finish.  Luckily I had taken a packet of GU and ate that at mile seven.  That helped greatly during the later stages of the race.  One Issue: according to race materials there was to be GU at multiple check points and I never saw any (maybe I just missed seeing them?).  However the check points were all well manned with people handing out water and Gatorade drinks.  THANK YOU to all of the volunteers.

We had heavy rain the night before with some during the early morning hours.  Magically the rain held off during and thru most of the race(s) so the cooler and overcast morning was perfect for racing.  There was a little headwind going out but the wind was at our backs coming back and that helped push us tired racers on.

Family members Christina, Tim, Sandi and Dan all had good races too.  All finished and survived!  Thank you to our friends and families that came out to cheer us on.
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