Rain, Pain, and a Nervous Poop

All,

I ran my first half this past Saturday ( Columbus Capital City Half) and it was full of excitement. The day started out a 5:30 for me eating eggs, fruit, and yogurt. I was excited and nervous for my first race over 5k. It was also about to be the longest I have ever ran.

My goal for the day was to run under 8:00 miles and come in under an 1:45.

When Jen and I were getting ready to go, we realized that we had no safety pins. This left me to drive out to CVS and Kroger's to get them to hold the race bibs...don't like to stress before an event. I get the pins and drive back to pick up Jen to head down town to Columbus.

Once we are ridding in the car, Jen and I are both feeling uneasy and like we have to poop, not an enjoyable feeling before 13 miles. We realize that the only opportunity we might have to poop before the race will be in a porta pot somewhere. We get parked at the garage, and start walking towards to the race when we see a Hyatt on the corner, we debate whether to try pooping there or not. We went for it and found the lobby full of people stopping in for a pre-race droppage. While pooping some guy ran in shaking all the doors in a nervous panic.

Once we did the business, we kept moving towards the race and get some stretching in.

The anticipation was getting closer and you could feel the excitement in the air, even with the gloomy rain clouds overhead. I put myself in the 1:45 pace to try and stay with those people through out the race.

The race starts after the national anthem and all the stupid "are you ready Columbus crap" ( they also played Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind song, which makes no sense to me for this event). The gun starts and we stand for about 2 minutes before there is enough room to start running.

Then you have people who are lazy and go to the front instead of the back because they want to be at the start and just get in people's way. Also if you are going to walk, wait for runners to get by you. I was weaving between 350 people for the first 3 minutes of the race.

But once I got out and started to enjoy the course, it is always fun to see the supporters. There was this funny Asian girl that popped up at 3 different spots with a cow bell rooting people on. The first time I saw her, there were a couple of Asian in front of me and assumed she was rooting for them. But later she was screaming "Go Columbus, you are the best". Made me laugh and enjoy the race.

Also at the drink stations, I skipped the first two because I didn't water at 3 miles into the race, but after that I got stuff at everyone. The first two I mistakenly took powerade because I couldn't hear what they were saying. Trying to drink while running isn't the best for sugary drinks when you spill most of them on you. After failing twice in this part, thought it would be best to turn off the music when coming towards the drink stations.

I felt good the entire race until I hit a wall at about mile 9-11, were I think I ran about 10 minute mile splits. I thought the whole time, "how the hell am I gonna run a full", but at 11 I got a great boost of energy for the last 3 miles.

It was overall a great and enjoyable experience to run in the rain, it kept things cool and provided a nice atmosphere for a long run ( running in misty light rain is my favorite).

At the end it did get pretty cold waiting around to find Jen after the race. I was able to run it in an 1:40 ( no Dave Minner), but was happy I beat the 1:45 mark.

If you were all able to read through my crappy writing, this was part of the tale of my first half marathon. I am looking forward to training for the longer runs and will be looking to do a couple more half's along the way. Spen, Dave, and Brett: let me know if you find one you want to do.

The shirt we got was cool, but the swag sucked.