Mini Race Report: Suwanee Half Marathon
Bottom Line Up Front: 02/09 -
@OldSlowGoofyGuy - Suwanee Half Marathon (Goal: 2:15 / Results: 2:11:53)
Details:
I signed up for this race on an impulse. I've been feeling mentally and physically burned out from too many races. My plan was to 'fun run' it, something I never do. I haven't been training at half marathon level, but I figured if I took it easy, I'd be OK.
Pre-race: Suwanee is about 45 minutes away. I planned on driving down around 11:30 Saturday. That morning, we got hit with an unexpected (at least by me) snow storm. We had 5 inches up here. I delayed my departure till 2:30 to give the DOT time to clear/salt the roads. We live on a private road with a steep hill. Needless to say, no one cleared that. I wouldn't have made it out without 4 wheel drive. The drive was nerve-wracking, but uneventful.
Packet pickup was painless and took about 1 minute. After that, I met my brother and SIL at Stillfire Brewing. I had one of the best IPAs (Glory Haze) I've ever had and a grapefruit sour. The first sip was shocking, but after that it was great. It'd be better on a 90 degree summer day instead of a cold snowy 30 degree day. After Stillfire, we walked to Mellow Mushroom. Pretzels, salad, and a coupe of slices of pizza for me. After dinner, back to the hotel to lay out flat OSGG and off to sleep.
Race Day: It was 29 degrees at the start. Not much wind, roads were dry, but still lots of snow on the grass (and wooden structures, but I didn't know that yet). I went with a short-sleeve shirt, compression shorts and socks plus throw-away hat, earband, gloves, sock arm warmers, and a long sleeve pullover. I ditched all of the throw-aways by mile 3, except the gloves. I held on to them a little longer, but as it turns out, not long enough. I hadn't fully decided on a pace when I saw the 2:15 pacer and decided that seemed about right. The race started on time and our pace group started with about 6 people. Attrition whittled that down until at around 7 miles, it was just me and the pacer. I hung with her until around 12, when she slowed way down because we were ahead of pace. I said goodbye and pulled ahead. I felt pretty good the whole way.
The course is a loop, then an out-an-back with most of the second half being in a city/county park, largely on the greenway. The park portion alternated between sections of paved trails and boardwalks. It was maybe 1-2 miles of boardwalk. All of the boardwalks had 2 inches of ice/slush/snow. They'd been salted but it was pretty treacherous. One section was zig-zag cutbacks on a slope. We had to walk the turns on that one. The first boardwalk was pretty scary since it was completely unexpected and I've never run on snow, but I got the hang of it after that.
The course was hillier than I expected with 870 feet of elevation gain. The race website had the elevation listed. I did not pickup on that it was in meters and not feet. Oops!
As a surprise, my brother and SIL came out to see me finish.
Post-race: They had the usual bagels, bars, muffins, coffee, etc., plus pancakes hot off the griddle! It seemed like a bad idea to eat syrup-covered pancakes off of a Styrofoam plate with a flimsy fork and frozen hands, so of course I had a plateful! It was too early for a celebratory meal so I headed home soon after the race.
The bling was a short-sleeve performance shirt, nice medal, and a fleece blanket.
Thoughts: This was my first attempt to fun run a race. Normally, even if a race isn't a PR effort, I try to finish in the fastest time I can, given the parameters of the day.
Today was 24 minutes off my half PR, set in early December, so I really took it easy. It was the most enjoyable race I've had in a long time. I only had 2 moments of regret. The first was on the out-and-back. As we were headed out, we met the 1:50 and 2:00 groups coming back. Knowing I can hang with them but wasn't was tough. The second moment was when I looked at the results and saw I was 7 out of 10 in my age group. That stung a little. I may have taken it too easy; maybe 2:00 or 2:05 would have been better. I also see that racing or taking it easy is not an either/or decision. I need to plan my race calendar better and intersperse the racing with the fun-running.
My experiment was a success. It opened my mind to a different way of doing things and I had a good time while doing it. I would run this race again because it's so convenient and very scenic in the park, especially with snow on the ground. February weather can make this race iffy, so I wouldn't sign up too far ahead of time.
Pictures:
Nice job of coordinating the shirt and medal. The bibs also had the same design. I haven't opened the blanket yet, but I'm sure it does too.
I said my stretch goal was to get a good race picture. Let's just say I got one that was better than usual. This is at the finish. It's not quite a smile, but it's not the usual death mask. And no, I don't have a Mohawk haircut, the gray on the sides isn't as visible.
Thanks for reading.