Cary Half Marathon - March Madness Race Report

The day before this race, I woke to frigid temperatures and pelting sleet. I thought, "No way do I want to race in these conditions tomorrow!" Fortunately, when I woke on race day, it wasn't sleet pelting, it was only rain. It was a balmy 34 degrees.

Plagued with insomnia for the last few weeks, I was up at 2:30am and tried getting a million things done. I had no idea my ride, filled with other half marathon participants, was sitting out front for about 10 minutes before I received a text asking when the heck was I coming out? Sorry, guys!

The Cary Half Marathon prides itself on being held in brutal weather. The thing about March in Chicago is just like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, "You never know what you're gonna get." Thankfully, the rain stopped before we arrived, but the wind was bone chilling. After running in Disney this year, I was ready for anything, but so very, very thankful of being able to wait inside the school until about 10 minutes before the start.

Spending the time inside, I was able to catch up with a few friends I haven't seen in a while. I remember when I first started running and triathlon, I used to go to races alone and see everyone talking to their friends and I wished I knew some people. It has come completely full circle as I didn't go more than 5 minutes before the start of this race without running into a familiar face!

The race wasn't chip timed and I was treating this as more of a training run than anything else, so there was no need to push to the front. The race has about 1000 runners, so it's a good sized group and most are pretty competitive! The gun sounded and off we went! Though I've run the race several times, I don't remember it being quite so bottlenecked for the first mile or two. We seemed to be zig zagging a bit, but the pace was still a little quicker than I expected.

Within the first two miles, I shed my long-sleeved throwaway shirt. This year, they gave the hills nicknames. I remember the first one being called "Shoe Tree Hill" and I thought it was funny. We jockeyed with this guy wearing those vibram shoes. He looked like he was running pretty gingerly along the road, so I decided to start talking to him and ask him how he liked those shoes. He said he did, but I think he said he got them after the Chicago Marathon (October) and only had about 70 miles on them - indoor. I can't imagine those shoes feel good to run in outide, but I've never tried them. And since my toes were numb from cold being all together in my sock, I know my toes would fall off in this weather if I attempted to try those things.

About mile 4, I decide to ditch my handwarmers. NO, people, I was not the one who dropped theirs in the road, I waited until an aid station before I pitched them. And yes, I still had 2 pairs of gloves on at this point. On we go, and I don't think I'm taking in enough fluid, but I don't want to take off my gloves to get the water yet I don't want the water to spill on my gloves to get them wet, so I'm skipping more aid stations than I should. By mile 6, my hands are cold and I wish I hadn't trashed those handwarmers! (you can buy a box of these at Costco for a very reasonable price!).

The hills keep coming and I remember one of them being called "10 mile hill". It was just before mile 10. Very original. The pace is now slowing a little, but overall still faster than I anticipated this run to go. I am tiring up the hills a little, but the downhills are my friend. I pass many people going downhill...the same ones that pass me going uphill. Flats seemed kinda equal, but not much passing being done this late in the race.

I remember one of the garages being painted in hot pink and brown - I don't know why it reminded me of the Brady Bunch, but the garage door is now painted all brown. I couldn't help but start singing the Brady Bunch song, "Here's a story, about a man named Brady..." Thought it would get some laughs, but I think these people were pretty tired. It was quiet on that course.

On toward the end, I give it a little sprint. Not much. If you've ever seen me sprint, you know what I mean. It was time for the race to be done. We didn't hang out more than a few minutes before heading inside to change out of the wet clothes. It became apparent just how cold it was when you were standing around after the race.
A good, solid effort to kick off the racing season!

March Madness - Cary Half Marathon

One of the things the Cary Half Marathon is known for is the weather. Because the race is in the middle of March. Here in the midwest, that means you never know what to expect. It could snow, rain, be really windy, some combination of all those or it could be just plain beautiful. And the race is run, in or shine. It's like a badge of honor when you complete a race like this in brutal weather conditions so you'll hear people brag about the year they did the race when it snowed two feet and they had to run uphill both ways...with no shoes!

This year, we were fortunate to have almost ideal weather conditions. When I flipped on the television this morning, it said 33 degrees. I ran outside earlier in the week and it was 34 degrees and I froze. I decided I'd better layer up because I didn't want to be cold for 13.1 miles.

My carpool ride showed up right on time (I should have known). We made it all the way up to Cary without incident. By the time we arrived, the sun was shining and BC informed me that the weather forecasters said we'd only have wind of about 3-4 mph. Sweet! After we picked up our packets we headed back to the car where I debated on whether or not I was wearing too many clothes. Oh well, I had pockets in my running top, so I just figured I could carry what I needed to take off.

We headed on over to the start line and had already lost Randy and Donna. Even though this race isn't huge, we couldn't seem to find them amongst the field of runners. I had no time goal set for this race, I was just going to run with friends according to how I felt. It's amazing how different I feel when I don't pressure myself with any performance goals. BC, Joe, Angie and I just stood up on the curb, looking for Randy and Donna, but the gun went off and we still hadn't found them. I didn't even have my watch on the right setting, so I had to hit about 6 different buttons to get it to clear and start...this was a considerable distance after the start line. Oops.

Angie and I hadn't spoken in a while, so we had a lot to catch up on. Namely, her training trip to Solvang, my ride in Solvang, each of us have gotten new bikes, and a ton of other things that we'd normally share had we seen each other more recently. Within the first couple of miles, I realized I was definitely overdressed. I took off my much too heavy wool hat and put it in the pocket of my running top. By mile 3, it was just Angie and I running, talking, missing the mile markers and keeping a pretty good clip. The times I was able to catch the mile marker, I pegged us for about an 8:20 pace. Cary is a hilly course...8:20s is tough!

I heard Angie say she was shooting for a sub-2 hour race. Well, she was going to crush that if she kept this pace, so I told her that. Around mile 6, I learned that she hadn't been focusing on her run much and her longest run recently was 6 miles. Uh oh. This could get ugly!

The hills kept coming and it was difficult to talk during uphills. It was easy to tell when either of us was struggling because our sentences during those times were pretty broken. We chatted back and forth, passing people we knew, being passed by other people we knew and, just in general, having a pretty good run. I started catching our splits and we were still keeping the 8:20-8:30 pace. I couldn't believe I was keeping up. (I've been slacking in my running pace lately).

Not sure when it happened, but things started getting tough and I could hear the doubt creeping into Angie's voice as we talked. But I knew she could keep the pace...she wasn't breathing THAT hard (not like one of the dudes we passed...thought he was having a grabber!). We were into mile 12 and I told her that we were much closer to 1:50 than 2:00! Excellent!! We turned one of the last corners and she asked how much time we had left...about 3 minutes. And she turned it on. Yep, Ang still had some juice left! We were both breathing pretty heavy at this point, but we were feeding on each other's energy and it made for a strong finish!

We grabbed some Gatorade and headed over to see some of our friends finish. It's amazing how quickly the 13 miles seemed to go by! Of all the years I've run this race, I think this was the best weather I've seen. Joe crossed the finish line and immediately announced that he would not be back next year! (not sure if I believe that). BC finished while flipping the bird and wishing he hadn't worn a jacket. Donna finished injury-free. Randy finished while maintaining his planned heart rate.

I wanted to get a group shot of all the Salt Creek Tri Club people, but they left before I could get to the car, get the camera and get back.

All in all, it was a great race and near-perfect conditions. I just wish I had more time to chat with all the other runners I knew there. But SOMEONE was in a hurry to get home! Until next year....