Motive Bison Half Marathon (The Rest of the Story)

Wow! Where to start? This morning, we had the Motive Bison Half Marathon, a fixture on the Austin running scene for quite a while. I think I've run 5 of these, plus one other time I ran its precursor, the Bison 20K, so for pretty much my entire Austin running career, I've been here in November for this one. Motive has done a great job with it, with great goodies, and plenty of food and stuff in the post-run scene. I've heard rumors that they might finally have to step down as title sponsor due to the vagaries of the high-tech biz, but I hope not. It would be a drag to have this race lose this course, among other things.

Anyway, I woke up to perfect running weather. It was actually in the high 30's on the way to the race, crisp and clear, and warmed to the mid-40's by the start of the race. It probably warmed up to the low 50's by the time I finished, so all things considered, it was pretty great out there. So, as predicted yesterday, I would lose that handy excuse if things didn't go well. :-)

I got there plenty early, found a good parking spot, and then meandered over to the Gazelles tent to meet up with the troops for the warmup jogging and drills. I was glad to see that Frank was feeling better, and seemed ready to run, and my would-be pacer, Alex, was chomping at the bit to lead me through this thing. A good group of Gazelles hit the road, and we ran backwards along the course one mile and then turned around, so that we could: (1) warmup for 2 miles (duh!), and (2) Check out the final mile of the course so we'd know what was coming in the homestretch of the race. It was some super easy jogging, and most of us were all bundled up just to make sure we gently warmed to the task at foot, so to speak. While the others started their drills, I jogged back to my car to get my bag of stuff, so I'd have my post-race stuff nearer at hand. That Gazelles tent has proven to be a really great thing. It's fabulous to have a place to gather before and after the race, and to have the option of dropping clothing there is pretty cool.

Once I got back, I did a few drills, dropped a jacket, then an extra shirt, and finally after doing strides, I was in my race outfit. I wore my lucky red long-sleeve Gazelles shirt (but I'm not superstitious!), and started out with light gloves and a cap. My pocket shorts were loaded up with stuff, two Enervitines, a GU, and gum (love that peppermint!). Race number pinned on, I went with Alex over to the starting corral. In the process, we lost Rachel, Amy, Frank and everybody else except for Sue, who lined up a few feet behind us at the start. In the corral area, I went over my generic race plan once again with Alex, and he seemed ready to execute it with me. For him, even my craziest race goal pace would be a full minute per mile slower than his best at the half marathon, so this should be easy for him, even 3 weeks after his marathon at Chicago.

The national anthem was sung very well, and I think it was done live, although I'm not positive of that. After that rousing sendoff, Evel hit the air horn, and cued up his "Start The Race" mix of nothing but opening riffs of songs. If you had the time and inclination, it would make for a pretty good trivia contest to name all the tunes that appeared. At 4 or 5 seconds each, there would be a lot of songs to cover. Anyway, about a minute after the horn, Alex and I crossed the timing mat, and we were off.

The first mile was the typical jumble of people, and for Alex it was a new experience. He's accustomed to starting closer to the front, where you are running free pretty quickly. Welcome to my world, Alex. :-) We took turns leading the way through the early traffic, and by the time we crossed under 183, we were running free. Not too bad. I did miss the first mile marker, though. Oh, well. Sue caught up with us during mile 2, and we passed the Guv and his running posse during that second mile as well. It was funny, but we did pick it up as we went by him. Didn't mean to, but we did. Pace was solid after the first couple of miles, maybe a shade faster than I had expected, but not horribly so. The third mile was a little too relaxed, and then we settled into the pace of the day after that.

With Alex's suggestion, I grabbed a cup of water at each aid station (except the one at mile 3), and drank some of each cup. I only drank the full cup once, at mile 7 where I took my GU, but that's getting ahead of myself. The aid stations this year weren't as inventive as in years past, and the budget must have been smaller, too, because there was no live music at the water stops. Oh, well.

Mile 4 came along right before the big downhill to the low spot of the course, and we were moving along nicely. I tried to get down that long downhill without too much pounding, and mostly succeeded. Reaching the bottom of the course, I took my first Enervitene at that water stop, and then it was time for the Assault of Rain Tree Mountain. I like what Frank said about this long series of climbs after the race. He said that the first year he ran Motive, it seemed monstrous, and over the years, and after years of Gazelles hillwork, the mountain seems to have leveled out a bit for us. It doesn't seem quite as steep and awful as it did back then. It's still tough, and you have to be smart about it, but it's not a deal breaker, either. If you've done the proper preparation, that is. We stepped on the King/Queen of the Hill timing mat, and commenced climbing. There's a shorter climb, then a short level spot, followed by a tough steep part, about like parts of Mt. Bonnell. I shifted climbing gears as the incline angle changed, and made my way up the hill. Sue was right with me, and Alex would drift ahead of us 20 feet or so, and then he'd ease up so that he could encourage us at times. After that second part of the hill, there was another flat to downhill bit, followed by a longer incline that wasn't quite as steep, but still challenging. Having passed that with flying colors, we got a respite with a downhill section. Finally, we turned the last corner onto Fire Oak, and had that last nasty steep climb to finish off the festivities. That's the one that gets me, usually.

By the way, I was a little saddened that the cello girl wasn't there at that last corner this year. It was a long-standing tradition that she'd be out there, playing the Theme From Rocky (Gonna Fly Now). Let me shed just a single tear, here. Turn away, please, to let me have this moment...

Okay, you can turn back now. I've got it back together. :-)

Still, we reached the water stop at mile 7 in pretty good shape. Our pace was nicely in line with pre-race goals, and judging from HR data, I was doing a good job of running a quality race. Burning the candle, but not burning it up at both ends. Not yet, at least. I took a GU at that water stop, and drank the whole cup of water there. Alex started getting antsy here, wanting to start running harder, but I called him back so that we could negotiate the last section of short hills in the first half mile of mile 8. Once we finished those up, we got back up to speed. I told him that just running normally, we'd speed up enough to get to most of our goals, and when we settled into a nice pace in the 7:45-7:50 region, I asked my pacer to take us through a bunch of miles just like that.

The three of us made our way forward during the stretch from mile 8 to mile 10, passing plenty of folks, and gently picking up the pace. I used HR today to reassure myself that I wasn't blowing my race in those miles, and it was cool to see that my body was handling the stresses of today's activity well. There were a few spectators yelling for us around mile 9, including Patrick, and that helped. I think I snapped at Alex in there somewhere, at mile 11, when we had just clicked off a mile in something like 7:30, and he was yelling "Let's Go!" I stopped trying to calculate what my potential finish time might be, and started just focusing on not letting up. If I was able to keep running at that same pace, I was pretty sure I'd have a great day. And, last year, I gave up 20 seconds or so in mile 13, and I didn't want to repeat that this year.

Rachel caught up with us and passed us in mile 11, but stayed maybe 20 yards ahead. I think Alex used her as a target of opportunity for our last couple of miles. :-) I was struggling mentally during mile 12, losing a tiny bit of focus, but snapped back soon enough. My discomfort was totally musculo-skeletal, and not from breathing agony, and I figured I could handle that. More twists and turns later, we finally reached the final mile of the course. Somewhere in there, maybe in the last half mile, we caught up to Rachel again and passed her. She had me on chip time, but Alex had the fever to pass people, and Rachel just happened to be the next in line. :-) I missed the mile 12 marker, but as we turned into the circular street that was most of mile 13, I knew exactly what we had left, because we had done it in warmups. Sue fell back a yard or two in mile 13, and I just kept trying my best to stay on Alex's pace through that inclined last mile. I was begging inside for that road to end, and I was very happy to see the corner that would take us almost to the end of the race. Someone on the side of the road said, "just a quarter mile to go!" and that helped a bunch.

We flew up the short piece of Riata Drive (Street, Parkway, whatever it was), turned a corner into the Motive campus, and passed Bernard and the Mile 13 marker almost simultaneously. Now, Alex was really excited. He got me sort of stoked for a last hard effort, and I chased him as he accelerated for the last bit of the race. As we turned into the parking lot at Motive for the very last 50 yards, he yelled at me to "race [him] to the line!" and I figured that I had no choice by then, so I obliged him. :-) It felt great to blast across the finish line and be done for the day. After congratulating Alex for his great job today, and trying to catch my breath, we were done. Score! We got our medals, food bag and complementary replenishment liquids, and walked slowly out of the finishing chute.

And what was the final scoring?

Splits: 8:00 (est.), 7:45 (est. due to missing first mile marker), 8:15, 7:44, 7:47 (includes first bit of the mountain climbing), 7:59, 8:06 (the two miles of hilly bits), 7:50, 7:45, 7:45, 7:32, 7:35 (est.), 7:36 (est. due to missed mile marker mile 12), and 0.11 miles in 0:41 (6:13/mile finishing sprint). Total time 1:42:20. Average pace 7:48/mile.

For all practical purposes, achieved even the craziest of pre-race goals for today. Lifetime PR by 1:10, course PR by almost 6 minutes from 2005, and within a few seconds of the predicted McMillan table time of 1:42:15. My last miles were my best, I didn't slow up at the end, and I had a big negative split. First 7 miles at 7:57/mile average pace, last 6.11 miles at 7:39/mile average pace. It was the best possible running day for me at this point in my running life, and I am thankful for all that conspired to get me through the day's efforts. Everything went just about as I had hoped, and it was nice to see that a pre-race plan can be followed and succeed.

Soon enough, the gang had assembled, in various states of fatigue, at the Gazelles tent, and we began the process of putting on warmer clothing now that we were done with the heavy lifting. I convinced some folks to do the cooldown 2 miles with me, but only Alex ended up doing the full 2 miles. Everyone else decided that a mile was plenty, I think. Can't say that I blame them. The cooldown miles were very slow. Very, very slow. But, I felt pretty darned good after I was done with them. The race was still finishing up as we did our mile out and back on the course, so we got to see some friends fight through the last mile.

Once we got back, Richard was there, with his bride and their dogs. Patrick was there, too, with his doggie. It was really great of them to come out and spectate, and I enjoyed seeing Richard again. It's been a couple of months since he's been able to run with us, so we took advantage of the chance to sort of catch up on things. Hopefully, he'll continue to get better, and he can rejoin us in the new year.

Frank and Brian ran a very controlled and relaxed half marathon today, and they looked awfully happy with how they felt. I think there were quite a few PR's or course PR's at least among the Gazelles, and that sort of thing sure makes it easier to forget how uncomfortable you were on Rain Creek, for instance. I know it worked for me. :-) I hung out and talked with almost everyone there in Gazelles World, and then it was finally time to go. Hard to leave when it's so pretty outside, but the Real World was calling.

So, that's the story. Thanks again to Alex for all his help today. It was cool to be just a little like Lance, and enjoy the benefits of a good pacer and taskmaster. It was also interesting and helpful to run alongside Sue today. I've not had much success running a race side by side with someone in the past, at least not for the whole race, and today I found out that it can be a pretty good thing. I kept waiting for her to blast by me, but we just helped each other grind it out today instead.

For the week, I tip over 40 miles for the first time in a while, at 42 miles. Tomorrow is something in the easier/recovery mode, and I then after a couple of days running at home, Thursday will be a return to Gazelle-ing. Cool.