OUC Orlando Half Marathon

Miles in 2013: 992.7

Days Until Dopey: 30

So I’m working on getting out of my slump and back on track.  This Saturday I ran the OUC Orlando Half Marathon.  I had been signed up to be the 2:45 pacer for a few months now.  When I went to pick up my packet I was told that the other 2:45 pacer had to back out leaving me as the only pacer.  I have to admit I was a little nervous of the responsibility, what if I was having a bad day, what if I tripped and fell, what if I just didn’t have it in me?  Luckily, I was able to snag Leah the other pacer gig so I felt MUCH more comfortable having her as my security blanket!  We met up in the morning and used the very swanky Brooks sponsored VIP porto potties – if you know me you know I’m a sucker for a port-o-let!  We met our group of hopeful 2:45 finishers and headed to the corrals.  By the time we got there it was already a little crowded in the area of 10+ to the beginning of the walkers.  I swear about 30 seconds after the start I broke the pacer stick – you can’t take me anywhere!  As we started with our group we got to know some of it’s members.  One girl said “a 2:45 is a PR for me so I’m sticking with you” another was the mother of a student I had a school.  Most seemed to enjoy the 3:1 interval pacing “man this makes it easier.”  Each mile we would check our watches, true to form we were a little faster than pace.  Every mile we’d tell the group “we’re ahead of pace so we are going to slow down just a little” and we did, and yet at the next mile, still ahead of pace.  I blame it on our fast walking pace.  We also had budgeted an extra 30-60 seconds for each of the water stops so we knew we needed a little extra time in there for those.  One tough thing was that the 2:30 pace group had started a few minutes behind us in the corrals so we heard a lot of “how are you ahead of the 2:30 pace group?”  As the run went on we maintained a pretty steady pace.  One girl was particularly awesome – she had a group of people cheering for her that I swear made it to 5 or 6 places on the course.  The first time she saw them she started to cry “I was in the hospital yesterday with a Kidney infection” she told us.  I told her to suck it up she could cry at the end, she laughed and agreed.

At the start

Around Mile 10 I was struggling, it was SO HOT.  Even though I am a born and raised Florida girl, I cannot handle the heat well at all.  As the race progressed I got more and more over heated and felt worse and worse.  I knew I had to back of a little bit.  Leah and our pack of 15 were up ahead just a little bit so I sent a quick “about to puke” text to her to which she replied “I got this. Hope U feel better.”  Thank God for Leah, I could breathe a little easier.  I kept plugging along.  A few times people would come up on me and check to see if we were still on 2:45 pace  - I could always reply “yes!”  As I hit mile 11 I started picking people to push along “c’mon Jorge we are running to that stop sign!”  Poor Jorge, I heckled eh motivated him for miles.  He told me his original goal was 2:15 – I told him that wasn’t happening but we could still get 2:45.  He stuck with me for most of the rest of the race.  I came up on the finish line at 2:41 and change.  Leah had kept the whole group and they finished in a 2:35.  She told me she kept offering to slow down and they all said “no way, this is AWESOME!” and kept going.  I never came up on any of them so I know they all finished ahead of their goal!  Leah luckily got all of the sweaty stranger hugs and I didn’t.  I did however see poor Jorge about a minute after me who just smiled and gave me a fist bump. I also saw a girl from our marathonfest pace group who held with me for almost all of the race sail in at a 2:42 and a very happy 10 minute PR!  I’ll call that a successful pacing job.

Leah and the people from the pace group finishing

It was a tough race on a hot day, I’m glad that I could help others achieve and exceed their goals!

With our medals and we had to get a pic with Bisquits!