"The Hobble Creek Half Marathon has a net elevation loss of 1,253 feet, almost exactly half of the 2,560 foot loss at the St. George Marathon." It prides itself on being a great tune-up race for St. George. I registered for this race before I knew I was running STG. I'm so glad I was able to run it.
Lessons learned...
1. Even though they say start slow, they mean, start slow!!!! You're body naturally wants to run. It wants to run as fast, if not faster, than what it's been doing for the past 5 months. It is downhill after-all. I think it will be hard to run slow when others might be passing, but I see how it can pay off. I started out fast and ended slow. Granted it might have been a 30 second difference. That over 26 miles can have a huge difference.
2. I have no problem staying with a pacer. Part of me thinks that is cheating. You are not doing it yourself. You are just following someone and doing what they do. Hey, if it helps me get to the finish line, I'm good with it.
3. Walking every 2 miles through the water stops is okay.
4. Listening to 4 minute increments of music for 4+ hours might just drive me crazy. I definitely need my book on cd. I usually listen to these on my long runs, especially since I'm going slow. During the half, I listened only to music. I got bored. I need to make sure to have my book on my iPod so I can listen to that. It might help me run slower and keep me entertained.
5. I love having my phone. I like that it talks to me every mile to tell me how I'm doing. The jury is still out on the Garmin. I didn't look at it too often. I was actually running according to how I felt. I probably should have stuck to a specific pace and kept checking that. That just seems like to much work. I will definitely have to do that in STG.
6. Don't discount all those miles and hours of training. They really do pay off.
7. When I was done, I could see myself doing it again. Which means, I can do this!
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