more will be revealed

I have officially finished my first ever race! Yesterday morning I ran in the Cincinnati Flying Pig half-marathon with my buddy Ted Rastatter, and wow, what an experience! Ted and I crossed the finish line with a time of 2:02, which we were both quite happy with! We would have been under the two hour mark if I didn’t have to make a pitstop at mile one! I think that the next half I run, I’ll be able to get my time down to 1:45 or so, especially if the course isn’t as hilly as Cinci!

A quick recap of the experience: Ted and his wife picked me up at 5am to make the one hour drive down to Cinci and we were able to find parking in a lot right next to the starting line. The weather turned out to be perfect, too! The temperatures were in the low 50s and the skies were clear as the sun rose in front of the some ten thousand people or so turned who turned out for the half and full marathons. I wasn’t sure quite what to expect, as I’ve never been to a race like this, really since my high school track meets, though none of those had this many people!

The energy in the air was incredible as we waited for the start. Ted and I were about 50 yards from the start line, probably in the middle third of the pack. At the sound of the start at 6:30am, a cheer was heard throughout the crowd, and we slowly moved forward towards the start. I didn’t know it until afterwards, but it took us 2 minutes to get to the starting line from the moment the race started!

Our first 4 miles or so were a bit slower than we had wanted, because the crowd was packed so tight. Of course, my 5 minute pitstop slowed us down and grouped us with some of the slower people in the race. Not that we were fast though, by any means! Watching some of the expert runners there was just amazing. When we were at mile 6, we saw the leader of the half-marathon coming down the hill…towards mile 11! The winner of the half finished in 1:10 or something ridiculous like that. And the marathon winner finished in 2:30. Very impressive!

I would have to say that the hills in miles 5-8 were definitely the most challenging part of the course for me, but the most rewarding as well. We were treated to quite an incredible view overlooking the river and the city after running down Eden Park. It also was nice to have basically a downhill run from miles 10-13. At the beginning of the downhill section at around mile 10, Ted and I decided to make up some time by picking up the pace and we were soon flying down the street, blowing by people! I know at several points of this brief downhill dash I had a huge grin of my face.

Coming in to the finish was quite memorable as well, with hundreds of people lining the streets, cheering on the runners as they made their way to the finish line. There were actually people cheering us throughout the entire race, as they were at various intersections and streets, lined up to encourage us runners to keep pressing on. We also saw various bands along the way who provided musical entertainment for us, which made the run enjoyable.

Without a doubt, this race was totally worth all of the running I’ve done the last two and a half months. For my first half, I’m happy with my time but very excited about doing even better when I run my next one. I’m quite a competitive person and can really see myself getting hooked on this. I’m looking to run something this fall, maybe sooner. Look for pictures from the race later this week!

Posted on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 1:50 pm in latest in my life, sports | rss feed for comments| Leave a response, or trackback