Sea of Humans: a race report

That’s what parts of the race looked like and it was cool. I only wish I had a photo of it–like an aerial shot or something. 

I made my way to the starting line just about 1 minute before take off. The lady on the PA system announced it was the largest crowd since race started in 2002! Cool! More and more people are getting’ out there! 

As I was sliding through the runners to edge a little closer to the starting line, I passed a fella who had just been handed a pair of shades by his wife from the sidelines. He shook his head, “no, I don’t need them”. She turned and walked away and I saw a little boy with her who was all bundled up and smiling. I assumed it was the guys son. I tapped the guy, who happened to be an overweight african-american, and said “is this your first one? ” Yes”, he nervously replied. “Wish me luck!”. 

“I do. And I bet your kid is gonna be so psyched for you”

“Yeah, he is already excited.”

2 seconds later, we were off on our journey. Some ran the full marathon, others like myself ran a half, and then there were some who ran a marathon relay. 

I did not have great expectations as my total mileage per week has not been very good lately and I had to give up on my goal of a sub 2 hour finish. I have just not put in the miles and proper training to get this done. Yet. My adjusted goal was sub 2:05. My longest run since running the half on thanksgiving has only been 8 miles. I know, slacker! However, I was happy to be there on the streets of Birmingham and see what I could do. 

I felt pretty good as mile after mile came and went! The course was altered a little this year and it didn’t include the monster hill that usually occurs around mile 6. Hey, no complaints here. They did, however, toss is a long gradual hill in the 9th mile to make it interesting. By mile 10, legs began to feel really heavy, but I did not break stride and even tried to pick it up a little. I was in a mode where I knew if I slowed down, I would REALLY slow down, so I just put my pod on “ROCKY ” and kept going!  

Soon enough, I was in the home stretch and passed as many as I could as I rounded the final corner. My watch time was 2:04:45, which should be my chip time. Gotta check the results page. 

I looked for the fella I mentioned earlier, but never saw him. Hope he had a good, fun race. It takes guts to get yourself out there….no matter what your body looks like. It takes guts to do the training and then put yourself on the line. But, of course, that’s what life is about, isn’t it? 

I crossed the finish line and was given a thermal blanket and a medal. A young, male volunteer unlaced my shoe and took off my timing chip. Then, he laced my shoe. Bless him! Then, I grabbed my finisher t-shirt(got a different shirt at race expo) and grabbed some water, powerade, banana and orange slice. I stretched for few seconds and then walked to my car and drove to my hotel to get cleaned up. 

Funny, it seems like it all went by so fast. 

 

One of my goals for the year is to run a half-marathon under 2 hours. Looks like I gotta check the running calendars….