Fitness Friday || Air Force Half Marathon Recap

Saturday, September 15
Dayton, OH
Twelve In Twenty-Twelve #9
Weather – Perfect
Participants: 15,000

With a sky that looked like this I knew we were going to have perfect weather.

Ready with my new best friend, the inhaler. My iFitness single pouch belt is now as essential as my running shoes.

One of the best things about this race was meeting blogger/runners at the start, Kim from (Just) Trying for Little Girls, Jess from Run with Jess  and Lisa from Because I Can. We met again on the course around mile 5 or so.  It was great to have the unexpected opportunity to run with them. With her patriotic outfit,  Jess was easy to spot in the crowd!

Meeting up with another blogger/runner, Tina from Just a Minute of My Time. Tina has been one of the die hard 12 in 2012ers. I’m fortunate that I’ve had the opportunity to run so many of the same races with her this year. We have started talking about goals for 2013.

The start area was so crowded there wasn’t much of an opportunity to warm up. I took 2 puffs of the inhaler and according to the doctor I should be good to go for 6 hours. Regardless, something told me to take the inhaler with me. Note to self: Trust your instincts!

Miles 1-2:  I started with a pace group and loved it except for running at goal pace from the very beginning was tough without a warm up. I managed the fast start better than I expected.

Miles 3-7:  Maintaining goal pace and into a rhythm of just running. One of the benefits of running with a pacer is not having to stalk my Garmin except for the occasional pace checks after water stations. Feeling good and confident with about a 9:08 pace.

Miles 8-9:  Uh oh. I noticed my breathing was becoming shallow and labored. The inhaler was supposed to work for 6 hours.  What the heck! By mile 10 I had to stop and take an extra puff. I don’t know when I have ever been so grateful that I listened to my instincts. Undoubtedly I would have had a DNF had I not brought the inhaler with me.

Miles 10-11:  Feeling relief as my breathing returned to normal.

Miles 12-13+:  I slowed my pace to about 9:30. Feeling good again and ready to finish.

Somewhere about mile 4 several men were running toward the crowd yelling, “you’re going the wrong way.” I was sure I misunderstood them. No. Then, they yelled, “turn around!” All I could think of was how does that happen? At this point I lost the pacer and I had not idea how much distance was added. I did know that I HAD to know my time for 13.1 miles. So, at 13.1 I stopped my Garmin. A PR! 2:05! After having to stop and the debacled cluster of going off course I was shocked!

According to chip time and with the added distance I finished in 2:07. I’ve read anywhere from .30 added distance to 1.5 miles added. Check out my 5M time!

I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the race which is odd because it’s one of my favorites. I will say I was so freaking proud when I finished. I proved a few things to myself. Things I will never forget. A runners high and a feeling of accomplishment that lasted for days! Although there was the misdirection (not the first time this has happened in this race) and I think the size of the race has outgrown the venue, I will run it again next year. There’s just something about it that makes me want to keep coming back.

Have you ever been misdirected on a race course? What race are you most proud of running? How do you think 15,000 runners can be misdirected?

Tagged: #FitFluential, 2012 goals, 2012 Race Recap, bloghop, Fit Approach, Fitness Friday, goals, half marathon, iFitness, running, Sweat Pink, Twelve In Twenty Twelve, What Fitfluential Looks Like