Charleston Half Marathon - Race Report

Chucktown Course

Last Sunday was the Charleston Half Marathon, the first race of the 2013 season. This was only a "C" race for me, meaning I didn't taper for it and wasn't planning on going all-out. This was good because we drove up Friday afternoon after work and didn't get to our hotel until 12:30am, which meant just over 5 hours of sleep. Ugh.

Bre and I were only running the half while our friend Scott was braving the full (his first marathon!), so we drove down together in the morning and got to the course with plenty of time to huddle inside the highschool with the rest of the racers (it was 41 degrees at the start!). The race only had ~2000 runners, so there weren't any corrals to line up in, so Bre and I sort of stood in the middle of the pack. My plan was to take it easy for the first mile and then kick it up a gear and see how my body felt. My PR was 1:59:28 from the Crawlin' Crab, which is a pace of 9:07/mile, so if I could hover around that and then push for the last few miles I might even be able to PR. Here's the breakdown of how the race went:

Mile 1: 9:16. A bit faster than I expected for the beginning, but it was crowded enough that you sort of had to let yourself get shuffled along by the pack of people. Since the majority of the course was heading northwest I chose not to wear my sunglasses, but this first mile (and the next two!) were headed straight into the sun. Near the beginning I passed a fan with a Red Sox hat, and he picked me out (since I was wearing my Sox hat too) and high-fived me as I passed.

Houses on the left, water on the right.

Mile 2: 8:55. I kept the same level of "effort" for this mile, with the exception that I didn't let myself get stuck behind groups of people. It's too easy to get caught in a bunch of runners and coast along with them, so every time I came across one of these I forced myself to run hard and pass them. I was pleased to see my split under 9:00.

Mile 3: 8:52. Doing great, same thing as the previous mile: slightly pushing myself, with bursts of speed to avoid packs of people. This mile was along Charleston's iconic waterfront homes, and very pretty.

Mile 4: 8:54. Finally out of the sun. Near the end of this mile was a water stop. I walk through every water stop, and walked a bit longer to eat a gel pack, and was happy to see my time didn't suffer for it.

Confederate Defenders memorial

Mile 5: 8:37. I was feeling great so I shifted into a slightly faster gear for this mile. I almost believed my GPS was off, but the course mile markers were matching up with what my phone said. Have I really improved this much since October?

Mile 6: 8:43. Around this time I was doing the mental math: if I needed a 9:06 pace to beat my previous PR, then I had already banked almost 90 seconds of buffer time. It was still early though, so I was waiting for the wheels to fall off.

Mile 7: 8:46. Another 20 seconds of buffer added. My legs were a little tired, but no other aches and pains.

Mile 8: 9:01. This mile was a long open area, where you could see the course and all the other runners stretching towards the distance. There was a water stop at the end, and I took the opportunity to eat my second gel pack, which accounts for the slower time. 

Mile 9: 8:41. Back on pace, nothing hurting yet though a little tired.

Mile 10: 8:59. This is where fatigue finally started catching up to me. I could feel myself running out of gas, and my left inner thigh was feeling really tight. "Damnit leg, don't bail on me now!" I thought. Knowing that I had a lot of time banked helped me keep from worrying too much though.

Mile 11: 8:44. After passing the Mile 10 marker, knowing that I only had a 5K left, I decided to keep pushing myself instead of coasting into a PR. "Let's get some 8:30 splits in" I told myself. It felt like I was running that fast, but the numbers (although nice) weren't quite that good.

Mile 12: 8:49. Same as mile 11: I felt like I was running much faster, but my time wasn't reflecting it. This mile was GORGEOUS, and ran through a park along the Copper River. Unfortunately that meant fighting some wind too, the first of the day.

Mile 13: 8:55. Energy was draining from my legs fast, but I still managed to keep it under 9 minutes. My left thigh felt on the brink of seizing up. 

Last 0.1 miles: 8:39 pace. Near the finishing chute I saw the Red Sox fan from the beginning of the race, and he pointed and me and screamed: "YEAH RED SOX FINISH STRONG BABY" and high-fived me again. That gave me a much-needed boost to finish hard.

1:56:11 Final Time

8:52 Average Pace

655 out of 2173 overall

384 out of 856 males

72 out of 139 M25-29 age group

I shattered my PR by 3 minutes and 17 seconds! Not only that, but my body felt really good immediately after the race (unlike the Crawlin' Crab, where my muscles cramped up and I had to limp around for the rest of the day). After getting my medal and some post-race grub I met up with Scott's family and my father-in-law. Scott's wife Nicky was VERY prepared, and had a gallon of chocolate milk waiting in a cooler. Nothing beats chocolate milk after a race.

Bre came in a little bit later. Her time (2:44:30) missed being a PR by 40 seconds, but she told me it was easily her best race mentally/physically. Sometimes the official time doesn't tell the whole story, folks.

My amazing wife, finishing strong and looking great!

The full marathon started at the same time as the half, so we had some time to kill before Scott came in. The official post-race meal was shrimp and grits, which didn't sound too appetizing at first but was actually incredible. Also, beer.

Despite starting out chilly, the day was perfect: 60 degrees and sunny. It felt good to hang out on the grass and cheer finishers on while enjoying our free beer. This was the 6th race I've been in where the runners get beer, and it was the first one where I had a chance to use all of my beer vouchers! In all the others I was either too cold or too tired.

Scott (a fellow Vibrams wearer!) came storming through a little bit later, accompanied by Wiley.

He finished around the 4:46 mark, which beats my first marathon time by a good 13 minutes. Not bad for his first time! Immediately after the race he told his wife that he was never doing that again, but by the next morning he had already revoked that statement. 

Overall it was a fantastic day spent with great friends and family, and the race was wonderful. The crowds were always loud and enthusiastic, even 5 hours into the race. This woman received an especially loud roar from the crowd:

Wow.