San Antonio Rock and Roll Half Marathon Recap

Long story short, I sucked.  And no, it's not because of my ankle - that didn't bother me until mile 9.  But my head just wasn't in this race after a few miles, and I ended up walking most of it.  Ugh...not what I set out to do, but I just could not get into the run.  It was a pretty tense and miserable experience, as you might imagine.  I really don't know what to say - I seem to be having a rough time, mentally, when it comes to races...combination of anxiety and I don't know what else, but it was all me, and it's not something I'm happy about.  Honestly, if I don't get it together soon, I'm not going to bother with racing anymore - walking a half marathon (not that there's anything wrong with that, if that's what you set out to do in the first place) is not what I want to be doing.  I've trained, I've been running, I had a great 11 mile run a couple of weeks ago.  But I couldn't even get myself to do half of that today, running-wise, and it made for a really long, disappointing race.

This is obviously not what I hoped to come and write about, and I'm too tired to try and wrap my brain around whatever issues are causing me to fail myself like I did, so I'll leave it at that and move on to a quick recap of the race.

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This was the fifth Rock and Roll race for San Antonio, and I have to say, it was done really well.  The expo was great - packet pickup was easy and not crowded at all when we got there (around 10:45 Saturday morning), they had lots of great vendors, the Brooks Cavalcade of Curiosities was fun (and we both won T-shirts), we got to see fourth place Olympic marathoner Meb Keflezighi, and enjoyed shopping around, all the while walking on a carpeted floor - nice touch, not making the runners kill their feet on concrete right before the race.

The race was huge - take a look at the map of the starting area (click to expand it):

See the start line?  We were in corral 26...all the way down the street, around the corner, and halfway down THAT street!  

They started each corral individually, with about 30 seconds in between each - we were slowly moved closer to the start line, and when they finally counted us down to start, it was great because we weren't all mashed together and I didn't feel like anyone was particularly in my way (nor I in theirs) - smoothest start I've had, or seen, in such a big race.

The course had tons of support, from water and Gatorade stations throughout, to people spraying water to cool the runners, salt packets, Vaseline for any chafing, GU was liberally handed out (yes, we took advantage since both flavors were Jeff's favorite), cold sponges close to the end, and of course, the bands along the route.  Oh, and the course was flat for most of the way, which irritated me even more that I wasn't enjoying running it! 

It was hot and sunny - 75 degrees when we crossed the start line at 8:05 am.  Plus the sun was beating down on us...although I'm used to running in heat and humidity, we normally get most of it done before the sun rises so we don't have to deal with a fireball in the sky making you even hotter.  Occasionally we'd get a nice cool breeze, which was wonderful.  I was dumping water down my back so the breeze felt even better.  I wore sunscreen on my face and neck, but still ended up slightly pink.  Being outdoors in South Texas in November - par for the course, really.

And now, some pictures - not a lot, as once things went south neither Jeff nor I were much in the mood to take any. 

Tower of the Americas silhouetted in the sunrise as we walked toward the starting area.

Thousands of our closest friends?  LOL - this is just a small amount of the runners there.

Julia, Coach Will and I, ready to Rock and Roll! 

Gotta love a shoe picture!

Jeff and I, in happier times...

Much later, Will, Jeff and I went to Red Robin, where a burger, fries and iced tea made us feel human again.

 

Here's my medal.  It's really nice - love the Texas flag guitar and all, but I don't feel like I deserve nor earned it.