13.1 miles through a runners eyes

So the AFC half-marathon is done but it will forever be etched in my memory as the first race I participated in. Before I come to the results and how I performed let me try and walk you through the 13.1 miles to the finish line.

The alarm rang at the unearthly hour of 4:15 am and woke me from my slumber. It was the day that I had been training for the past 6 weeks. I resisted the urge to hit the snooze button and quickly sprang to my feet. After a bath and a quick breakfast comprising of a glass of milk and half a bagel I got into race gear and was ready to leave home at 5:10 am.

There was hardly any traffic early in the morning and I made it into Balboa Park in 20 min. There were people by the thousands there and just seeing so many people raised my spirits. The half-marathon this year had a record attendence of 7200 people. The weather was near perfect, a cool 67F, and the sun stayed behind clouds for much of the race. We were taken by shuttle buses to the starting line at the Cabrillo National monument. I did a brief warm-up after arriving here and then mingled in with the croud at the starting line. I was all set to hit the road.

The start was slightly slow and I worked my way through the masses. It was amazing to see the diversity in the croud. It was an inspiration to see a lot of older folks as well as very young kids running. The initial couple of miles was rolling hills and I just concentrated on running at a comfortable pace. Also by this time the croud had dispersed slightly so I could pick up my pace for the next couple of miles which were pretty much downhill. My Michigan jersey got me a few "Go Blues" on the way tough I also found a couple of Buckeyes in the croud. I was at the 4 mile marker in about 30 min and going strong. I picked up my first glass of water and continued on. I knew that I was going faster than any of my practice sessions, but decided to stick on to the pace as I was pretty comfortable at the moment. I thought I could always drop off the pace if I got tired later on.

The next part of the race was along the bay with amazing views and I took in the beauty of nature. At the 10K marker the clock read about 50 min. By now the crowd had really spread out and I was moving with a group of people who were more-or-less doing the same pace as me and we stuck together almost till the very end. I walked through the water station at the 7 mile marker and had a glass of gatorade. Also reminded myself that more than half the race was done and I should push on. I pushed myself through the next 3 miles keeping with the pace of my group and concentrated on my breathing. I knew that the next 2 miles was going to be the killer as it was straight uphill through downtown and I wanted to save my breath for this.

And a killer it was. However much I tried, I could not help the uphill run from taking a toll on both my breath and my legs. At one point I contemplated slowing down a bit but got inspiration from a girl in our group who was right in front of me. If she could keep going so could I. The worse thing you can do at such a point is to look ahead and see the road going all the way up. After that I decided to just concentrate on the road in front of me. Few people did overtake me in this stretch, but I could not care less.

It was still all the way uphill at the 12 mile marker and even tough I knew there was just one more mile left, I felt completely zapped of energy. I wished the race would just end at the 12 mile marker. I could hear the croud cheering us to go on. I could not give up at this point. I just pressed on. The hills eventually gave way to flatter land and as my breathing returned to normal I got the energy to step on the gas a bit. But I guess everyone did the same and still our group was all together. We now entered Balboa Park and knew that the finish line was barely 200 meters away. Also there were a lot more people cheering us to the finish. I decided now was the time to change into top gear and sprint to the end.

Just as I overtook a very athletic looking guy from our group he too got inspired and we engaged in a short race on our own. I got into a nice rhythm and the last 100 meters just blazed past me. I remember overtaking at least a dozen people and the cheers from the crowd echoing in my ears. And with hands raised I crossed the finish line. I had done it. And I felt like a winner already !!

The next 5 min after the race were too hazy. I passed through the exit line where they took off the timing chip and I got my medal for which I could barely mumble my thanks. My heart was pounding and legs were bursting with pain. I so wanted to sit down but I knew I shouldn't. I then remembered to look at my cellphone stopwatch to see the time and it read about 1:47. I was elated. I got into the photo line and managed to smile for the snap. Then moved on to the place where they were pinning up the official results wondering if I had made it to the top 1000.

After a short wait the results were out. I had finished at an overall postion of 749 / 7000 and 90th in my division with a chip time of 1:44:36, that's a pace of 7:59 min/mile. It was unbelievable !! That's the story of my first run. Looking forward to many more such runs in the future !