Half-marathon experience

I haven't been updating this blog regularly because I have been out running... cheeky, eh? I ran the half-marathon on the Labor Day weekend in Disneyland, Anaheim, CA. I wrote a race report for my training group and I am just going to paste it here.

Hi, Thanks a lot for all your wishes! I proudly proclaim myself to be a half-marathoner (if that term exists ;) Sorry about the super-late race report. I was chilling out and lazing around for no particular reason :)

Recounting the chronological sequence of events leading up to the Finish line...
Sheela and I met at the expo the previous day to pickup our race packet. I hadn't submitted a finish time estimate as I had no running history. I was assigned to the last corral. Sheela had submitted an ambitious finish time. She was in the first corral. We were wondering what to do, how we could run together?

We had a carb-filled pasta dinner at a nearby Olive Garden. The race was to start at 6 am the next day. By the time we got to sleep it was already midnight. Woke up at 3:45 am, took a shower, dressed in the latest Asha T-shirts, wolfed down whatever was at hand for breakfast... bananas, dates, powerbar, bread-butter... such gluttons ;) We set out to the hotel next door to take a shuttle to the race venue. By now, Sheela had decided to run with me in my corral. Ladies of the last corral :)

We met a bunch of Canadian walkers on the shuttle. They were 3 corrals ahead of me and they were planning to walk the race in 3-odd hours. That set us thinking, "we dont want to pass six thousand people, weaving in and around the walkers." We sneaked into the second corral. I was happily standing way ahead of my finish time... let the other runners take the pains of passing me ;)

The race was flagged off with singing of the American national anthem, followed by the wheelchair participants and then the runners. We crossed the start line few minutes past 6 am. We set off together, waving to the ducks and mice crowded on the overhead bridge and sidewalks. We saw our friends, Amit, Laukik, Muthu and Shilpa just afterwards, they were cheering loudly for us. Amidst all that cheering we had missed our exact start time. We covered the first mile together but soon realized that I was too slow for Sheela's pace. I urged her to go ahead and try to shoot for her sub-2 hour target. I met her only at the end of the race.

The time at mile 1 was about 16 minutes. I made a mental note of that to keep track of my pace.

The next 3 miles of the course were through Disneyland. The course snaked through different themes in the park, Sleeping Beauty's castle, Sindbad's ship. Many cartoons were up early to cheer us... the puppets from the toy maker story, Sheharyar and Sheharzad from Arabian nights, fairies, dwarves and elves. The resident Disney characters Mickey, Minnie and Donald were cheering loudly for us.

At mile 4 I again saw my friends and we were all waving and jumping around crazily. Laukik was planning to join me and run along for a few miles but buddy running was not allowed :( By now I had gotten out of the Disney park and headed towards the freeway. The next stretch of the freeway was dotted with troupes of cheerleaders, dancers, and orchestra. There were water stations every 2 miles. The weather was surprisingly humid with avg temperature about 75 F and avg humidity 73%. I took a walking water break at every station. I tried drinking Powerade, it tasted perfectly awful... like diluted Gatorade without the sweet flavor. To amuse myself, I kept reading the slogans on people's T-shirts. There were several people dressed up as cartoon characters. I saw many Mickey and Minnie mouses, fairies, in full attire as well as people wearing funky Disney headgear. A green fairy was flitting by me now and then. I paced with her almost till the end. People were wearing funky head gear and funny slogans. A woman wearing a running skirt and t-shirt with the following line written on her back "You have just been passed by a skirt!" Another one, "Running is cheaper than therapy."

I had a powergel at mile 7. At mile 9 the course ran along the banks of the Santa Ana river. The river had dried up and we were kicking dust along the riverbank. At mile 10 we passed the Angels baseball Stadium. By now a slight pain had crept into the side of my left knee. Either I had run too fast or been cautious not to strain my sprainy left ankle. I used to get that pain earlier but it had gone away in the past 4 months of training. Now it had come back. I stretched sideways attempting to relieve it, but it kept returning. I ended up taking several walk breaks in the last 3 miles. I crossed the finish line at 2:42:00 with overall timing of 2:37:16. The medal is large, golden, in the shape of a Disney castle, yippeee my first ever medal :)

The race was a lot of fun but we missed the hearty cheering and the enthusiastic buddy runners from our group.