Galveston Half Marathon 2012 - pacing team

<a href="http://catfisheyeballs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/MardiGraMarathon.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-74" title="MardiGraMarathon" src="http://catfisheyeballs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/MardiGraMarathon-255x300.jpg" alt="" width="255" height="300" /></a>My first foray into pacing... What a rude awakening.

I woke up at 4:30am to the sound of RAIN.

Made myself a some quick teff pancakes and an egg and jumped into the car to Galveston.

About 40 minutes later, I park on the island, I don't see too many people out.

But the one guy i do see walking in the 50-degree- drizzling-darkness- his pancho is glued to him. He looked like a ghost passing by. It is WINDY!!! (weather website says 20mph wind) Not how I pictured running Galveston... I wanted a warm beach run, enjoying the scenery and salty air.

I summons the courage to get out of the car about 6:45. Race starts at 7:30. I see all

the runners huddled under the overhanging balconies on the Strand. Runners are insane, they never cancel.... if it was up to me, I'd always cancel. I can't find my contact but I see the Pacers sticks with the balloons, so I'm in the right spot. I go out for a warmup jog.

Not bad too bad out there. (But I'm protected by all the buildings)

I come back and say 'Hey' to my fellow pacers Brad, Virginia, and Kerry. Brad and I are tag team pacing the marathon and half marathon for a time of 3 hrs flat(1 hr 30min half), which is about 6:52 min per mile pace. I'm running the first half and then Brad will do the 2nd half. The gun goes sounds and off we go. Pretty good crowd at the start. Everyone is feeling good.

<a href="http://catfisheyeballs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/MardiGraMarathonLogo.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-76" title="MardiGraMarathonLogo" src="http://catfisheyeballs.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/MardiGraMarathonLogo.jpg" alt="" width="269" height="125" /></a>I'm checking my watch constantly to see if I'm on pace. Of course the GPS watch(Garmin FR110) is not exact and the 'current mile average' is jumping all around- it steadies out more towards the end of a mile- but it's a vital tool in pacing.

Mile 1 comes in right on time and I got about 4 guys sticking with me, plus others around. No worries, right?

Mile 1 6:52.7

As do miles 2 and 3. Feeling good. Nothing to report- that's good.

Mile 2 6:54.3

Mile 3 6:52.2

Mile 4 starts out and we turn from 45th St, left on to Seawall Blvd... HELLO WIND!!

Spirits get down in the group. I hear more labored breathing. I try to talk positive to some of the guys. "Yeah it's a tough wind but it should all even out in the end..." If anyone believed this, it wasn't for long, because we are fighting the WIND hard for next 5 miles!!!

I lose my early core group (two young guys one in red- who called me sir:(- he had a hard time keeping his hat on in the wind, another guy in a white singlet with long hair). And I pass most of the few runners ahead of us during this stretch- I'm just trying to keep my pace... no racing, honest! I think we're in like 8th place overall counting both the marathon runners and half-marathon runners, I think 2nd place if we were doing the full (the full winner wound up getta a 2:45, w/ a 1:22 half - much respect).

Through this stretch I really just break the wind for 2 runners. One a guy about my age(who says, "I'll take a free ride," as he wisely tucks in behind me), and one a guy that's in high school. We were working hard in this stretch. It's tough to keep going, striving for the pace your assigned to run when your group just disintegrates, you want to stay with them... but the clock don't stop, especially in this brutal wind- it speeds up. Then you think what's the point of pacing if no one is following?

Mile 4 6:58.5

Mile 5 6:58.3

As we keep battling the wind, I think, forget worrying about these guys, hey I'm NOT gonna make it. Has a pacer ever quit or bonked? I was thinking this would be an easy pace job. I didn't bring gels or take any water or Gatorade or carb up... now I'm seeing in this wind- that was a mistake. I am working way too hard...

Mile 6 6:55.4

Mile 7 6:48.4

At mile 8 one of the balloons on my pacers stick popped. I don't blame it!! In this wind, I would have popped long ago. It was non-stop. I'm surprised how long the balloon lasted.

Mile 8 6:54.7

Mile 9 6:55.8

Finally we turn back in a small loop from E. Beach Dr. And get a break from the wind. Foe turns to friend. Now we get aid from the wind. Feet feel light. I look down at the beginning of a mile and see 6:30 on the current mile pace... the 2 guys with me said, "Whoa. You can't do that." I laugh, "oh Yeah" and fall back a bit. It's easy now with the wind. I make up a few seconds on each mile just to even out what the wind did to us. The 2 guys go on up a head but not too much. I stay with them pretty much to the end.

Mile 10 6:46.8

Mile 11 6:47.8

Mile 12 6:49.8

During the mile 13 the "3:00 sign" on my pacers stick flew off. I ran back to get it and

stick it back on and sprint to catch up... I'd come this far with it... I was gonna have

something to hand off to my pace partner Brad.

Mile 13 6:51.2

Mile .1 1:13.6

I handed off the pacer stick, minus one balloon, to pacer Brad. He was ready to go. I tried to warn him about miles 4-9 into the wind, but words couldn't do it justice. I wished him luck. Hopefully he'd find someone to pace and help thru, but as I handed off to him he was all on his own.

I was happy to see I came thru in 1:30:39- a 6:53 min/mi pace (using Garmin numbers).

Just a second off of the prescribed 6:52.

Not bad for a first time pacer, in difficult conditions.

The 2 guys with me both got around 1:30's they thanked me and said they couldn't have done it without me, which made me feel good. Those were very hard earned 1:30's- very tough conditions.

I got a shirt and hat for my wife Mo and 2 cookies for the kids (+1 for me too! Forget the diet for a minute, I worked hard! Ahh sweet Toll house). A pacers pay. Then drove home to make it to church at 10:10- only missed the 1st song of worship. It was a good run.

Pacing is tough. I'm not a good leader. It's hard worrying about the guys behind you.

I much prefer racing and going all out (scheming about the runners in front of me!! mwhaaa, mwhaa-evil laugh)

But this was a good experience. A good training run. A reminder of how much the conditions effect you. Plus I got to run Galveston, a new adventure. And add it to my <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/147449982">Garmin map collection</a>.

I have a dream to win a small marathon one day, perhaps this could be a place where I could have a chance at it. But if the weather is like today... you'll have to really earn it.

Congrats to all the finishers.

You guys earned those marathons and half-marathons, not an easy day.

PS. Brad ended up finishing the 2nd half in 1:29:30... he did better than me.

He emailed me "Our overall clock time was 3:00:06. You must have been behind! :-)

That wind was unreal and at one point the rain was either being blown into me extremely hard or it started sleeting! Brutal!... I ran alone the entire way but was hoping someone would catch up, so I just figured I would give them a target.... The stick made it back with one balloon. The 3:00 sign flew off almost immediately when I turned back onto the Seawall and hit that head wind. I got more comments about the stick as I ran the course..." Good job Brad.

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