Motive Bison Run Half Marathon

I have steadfastly told anyone who asked that I believe this race course is easier than the Pervasive 10 Miler. Yeah, it has that long more or less continuous 2 mile hill in the middle, followed by a nasty little stretch exiting that neighborhood, but after that, it seems to be fairly level. Now that I've temporarily come to terms with Pervasive after this year's race back in October, it was time today for the other big hill race here in town, Motive. The race brought in some Kenyans this year to spice things up, and they both said this was the hardest half marathon they've ever run, so maybe I'm wrong about the course?

We met Gilbert at the finish line at 6:30 am for the ritual warmup and drills. Super easy running for 2 miles out and back, to and from the 12 mile marker brought us back for drills and all that fun stuff. I was feeling pretty good, nervous, but ready to run. Amy and I have made a fairly big deal about how we were going to race hard against each other today, after her narrow, but fair, win at Pervasive. Would this help or hurt? Pretty good weather this morning, too, low 50's throughout with bright sun. Sunglasses were a must.

After the stretching, I dashed back to the car, got my race garb on, downed a pre-race GU, and then visited the scrub forest near the finish for a hydration adjustment. Ready to run. I made my way into the starting corral, and Amy soon found her way to my spot. A taped National Anthem got us ready, and then the air horn sent us away. Amy and I eased through the early traffic, which was uneventful, but it was funny because Richard was there with us, and he was doing a play by play of the Amy/Jay "race" as we ran along. He was going to run nice and easy since he just ran NYC a couple of weeks ago, so we didn't hear him for too long. The first 3 or 4 miles are pretty boring, mostly a straight shot along Jollyville Road. Amy ran up to us during mile 2, and our little trio cruised along all the way to the bottom of the big downhill which kicks off the tough middle section of the course. Early on, I was running how I felt, but it was a little quicker than I had planned. Maybe I didn't plan aggressively enough? Took my first swig of Enervitene at the water stop at the base of the hill, and it was time to climb.

Splits miles 1-4: 8:54, 8:09, 8:04, 8:27 (backed off a little just to make sure I was ready to climb)

After that water stop at 4.5 miles, we commenced the 3 or 4-part climb. The first bit is steeper, but relatively short, then there's another longer, slightly shallower climb. By the second climb, Shannon and I had pulled away just a little from Amy. Again, I was running sort of within myself, but this was hard work. I saw Ron, my massage guy, cheering us on the side of the road. Lots of ghoulish interest among spectators on this stretch of the course. There was a bit of a false flat, and then another climb, followed by a short downhill stretch. That's where one of the aid stations was blasting (seriously...BLASTING) the Survivor song "Eye of the Tiger." Ugh. One ran faster there just to get away from the tune. Near the bottom of that little downhill, the usual girl was there playing the Rocky theme song on her cello. She wasn't playing as well this year...maybe it was the cooler temperatures? At that point, we turned a sharp right-hand corner, and slogged up the last, and cruelest, portion of the long climb at Motive. Pretty steep, and after everything else, it's just not much fun. Here's where I had serious thoughts of walking again, but knowing that Shannon was doing okay kept me pushing, and it levelled out just enough to deliver me from my mental demons. Another turn, and finally we got a tiny decline in the terrain, followed by the Harry Potter water stop between mile 7 and 8. Took another dose of Enervitene there, along with water and Gatorade, and we moved on. One last cruel uphill stretch coming out of that neighborhood, and we were finally at mile 8 and the onset of flatter finishing miles. So far, so good, ahead of schedule, could I hold it together from here?

Splits miles 5-8 (the hills): 8:14, 8:35, 8:37, 8:12. Whew!

Shannon had heard the tentative Gilbert plan to "Go!" at mile 8, and started ratcheting up the pace a little. I finally had to let her go during the last part of mile 9, crossing back under Hwy 183 and heading into the neighborhoods surrounding the Motive campus. My mile splits were fine, I just couldn't keep up with Shannon today. I was feeling tired, but I took more Enervitene at the water stop between mile 9 and 10, walking a few steps to make sure I got Gatorade and water, and that's when Amy caught up to me. I immediately caught back up with Amy, and we ran together for mile 10, and then I got a second wind and blasted a couple of good miles during 11 and 12. Rich passed me like I was walking during mile 11, and I just had to tell him to finish strong. I was giving it all I had. Every time I thought I was starting to drag down in pace, it turns out I was doing just fine. That's stuff the brain does to you when you're wearing down. I finished off my second Enervitene at the water stop around mile 11, and that was the last water stop of any sort that I visited. Pushing hard, I dragged through the evil little steady uphill chunk starting right before mile 12, and continuing all the way up to mile 13. Once again, the "go ahead and walk" demon spoke to me, but I fought that off. I knew I had a good shot at a PR by now, and just resolved to gut it out from there. I was passed by a surprising number of people in the last 3 miles, despite my splits, so I guess once you start moving up in the pack, you start seeing those faster people and better racers, huh? Turning the corner out of that last "U," I saw Patrick and Sean, and they yelled encouragement at me. They told me to kick it in, and I was just a little grumpy, since I was already at "kicked in." Still, that helped boost me for the short stretch between there and the final bit of the course. Liliana and Alex also screamed at me to push to the finish, and even Gilbert was jogging along, yelling at all his people. It was a lot of personal attention in the last 3 tenths of a mile of the race. I kept waiting to get caught by Amy, who was somewhere back behind me, but I never turned my head, for fear I'd see her on my shoulder. It was with great relief that I turned into the Motive parking lot and campus, and I saw the mile 13 marker. Anyone can run hard for a tenth of a mile, right? So, I threw it into as good a finishing gear as I could find, and turned the last corner for a short finishing chute. I heard Evel call my name, and I pushed across hard, trying for every last second. Done!

Splits miles 9-13.11: 8:03, 8:16, 7:50, 7:49, 8:12, 0:47 (7:07 "kick"). Final time 1:48:09, Masters PR, beating my time on the much flatter Indy 500 Half course in May by 1:27. I beat last year's Motive time by 4:45. Average pace 8:15/mile, almost what I ran at the Pervasive 10 miler. Big negative split, too. I think I ran a good race.

I got my nifty multi-colored finisher's medal, took a water and a Gatorade, along with my food bag, and shuffled through the finishing area. I chugged that Gatorade pretty quickly, but didn't get into the other stuff right away. Soon enough, I saw Frank, and then Shannon and Amy. Everyone had had a good day, and we had all run hard. Turns out that everyone had been yelling for Amy to "Go Catch Jay!," which I thankfully hadn't heard. Those Gazelles are a cruel bunch, huh?

Almost against my will, I joined Shannon and Amy (and later, Leslie) for the Gilbert-mandated 2 miles of easy cooldown running. It was nearly painful, mostly because I had chugged that Gatorade. That made for a better afternoon and reduced some of the post-run junk, but it's hard to do a real cooldown jog sometimes.

The post-race scene was lively, and it was good to see bunches of friends in the crowd. Live music was generally entertaining, and there was plenty of food and such if you were interested. I passed on the RunTex Beer Garden, knowing that I had a guitar gig this afternoon. If I had had a beer, I'm sure I would have been asleep, sitting in the chair on stage. :-)

The weather was so nice afterwards that it made it hard to get out of there. Soon enough, though, I walked with Frank back to the cars, and after a little more conversation, it was time to go. A good day at the races, for sure. A weird numerical oddity today in the standings was that I finished 494 out of 1963 runners. That's not too weird, but my race bib number was 494. Creepy, huh?

Monday is an easy 5 miles followed by some new circuit stuff that G has dreamed up. Should be interesting. Tuesday is another super easy run with Jan and Frank, and then a Tempo run / race is scheduled for Wednesday. Don't know how ready I'll be for that. Oh, yeah, tomorrow, I get the post-race junk out of my legs with a visit to the massage dude. My calves are already telling me it could be a bit tough at that appointment.

It was another big week of running, just over 43 miles, 5 runs, multiple gym workouts, and generally good exercise compliance. This coming week, I hope to cut the miles back to 30-35, just to get a little relief from the heavier mileage. Your body needs that from time to time. And, of course, the Decker 20K is in two weeks, so it would be nice to hit that race a little more rested than I was for this one!