Last Sunday I made my way to Lake Placid New York to run in the half Marathon. The village was booming with activity as i arrived. I luckily slipped on to main street right ahead of the Fire Fighter Convention parade and made my way to the Golden Arrow hotel to pick up my race bib. It was 6:30 and the pick up closed at 7:00.
I had no reservations for a hotel as the village was packed, my plan: crash in the Jeep. Sleep as well as I could and be up very early prerace to fuel up and get ready. I walked main Street, coffee @starbucks & picked up a Espresso Brownie for the morning. I planned on having a pasta dinner and decided to go with Generations, who was featuring a pasta buffet for 20 bucks. I skipped the buffet and went for a rigatoni off the menu, a Cesar salad and a Ubu ale from Lake Placid Brewing Co.. The Ale and the Salad were wonderful.... the pasta was a disaster. Rigatoni in a tarragon cream sauce with wild mushrooms....... with canned baby corn....?? and the mushrooms were of the canned variety as well - simply a mess.
I found my parking spot and settled in for a restless nights sleep. I guess that was to be expected. The Jeep is a bit too short. Just as well, if I were too comfortable I would have probaly slept in. Up at 6am, grabbed bagels and bananas for breakfast and headed for the start.
Making my way to the start I got a good view of the 2500 runners lining up, the MC was blasting B.E.P.s , great energy! The start was a mass start for both the full and half marathons. I made my way to the front to see the "fast ones" and to enjoy some of the MC's tricks including a Olympic gold medalist. I then made my way back a bit to find my place for the start looked around.... and moved up a bit. At the Marine Corps Marathon I learned a very valuable lesson - don't start too far back and get caught behind much slower paced runners. I am finding that I am really starting to like the start at a big race. It really is a lot of fun and excitement.
I had a very relaxed feeling of being completely prepared. I was up early with plenty of time to prep for the race. I paced my fuel belt with everything I could need: H2O bottle, 4 Rocktane GU gels, iphone, ipod, plastic baggie in case of rain, driver licence, bank card, car key.... yes prepared!! The only thing left weighing on my mind was soreness in my ankle, which I picked up the day before during a 10 k in Sackets Harbor. It felt tight, a bit of pain, but not really injured. I figured I would loosen it up early in the run and play it by ear.
I was looking to break the 2 hour mark. This put me at a 9 minute minute mile or under. A easy pace, but a big jump on my PR. I kept things in check in the first mile. So many times my first mile is just too fast with all of the excitement of it all. I was @8:30 at the first mile marker, perfect. I ran very relaxed paying attention to the big long hill we descended on the way out of town - we would be going back up it .... to the finish. The run was very nice, the mountains off in the distance mixed with fog. We ran past the Olympic ski jump. Mostly the course was flat with rolling hills. My MM's were 8:15 - 8:30 and I was not pushing it much at all - very comfortable. I ate and drank along the way, feed the body is smart (lesson learned on my first half marathon). My ankle was feeling fine, no worries there at all. Just short of the turnaround I saw and greeted a friend from Watertown, Molly. I was very pleased realizing the turnaround was about 7.5 miles in, a nice relief that one more mile down before heading back. The run back was nice, I felt it in my legs a bit, but kept my pace. At the 12 mile mark the incline came clearly into view - yes all the way back to Main Street, I thought... So up I went using the energy I had saved for this respectable hill. We did take a turn, but only for the worse, now the Olympic stadium was in view straight in front of us, but straight up a winding road.... no flat main Street and gradual decent to the finish as I thought. Up I went, head down, this was it, glancing at my watch I saw I would be well under 2 hours, but pushed just the same. Cruel.... a cruel place to put this hill. At the top of a few hairpin turns on a service road that led us to the Olympic skating oval (yes flat) only a half lap to the finish.
A great finish with the announcer calling your name as you came to the finish line. Well done Lake Placid and well done to myself as well - I finished with a time of 1:54:30 at a 8:44 pace. This being a new PR shedding over a half an hour off HM time from a year ago in Stuttgart, Germany. I come away from this run feeling as the experience I am gaining and the training I am doing is really paying off -
I am becoming a runner.
