Frostbite Half Marathon 2011

Earlier today, Lynn, Kelly, and Stephen (a friend), and I all traveled to Starkville to run the Frostbite Half Marathon. What an experience! Unfortunately, my hard working husband had to work today, and he couldn't join us. I really missed him!

Stephen, Me, Lynn, Kelly

after the race

Lynn and I planned to treat this "race" as a training run. We were scheduled to run 16 (the furthest she or I have ever run) today, so we decided it would be fun to run the half marathon and just run 3 extra miles. So we arrived in Starkville in time to run the 3 miles before the race. Good thing we did! I don't think she or I could have run one more step after crossing the finish line.

This race is unique in that the runners (363 of us) all gather in the parking lot of the Wellness Center and then board 12 greyhound type buses (MS State buses---Go State!) for a 13.1 mile ride out to the middle of nowhere, Pheba, (pronounced Pheebee) MS. There is one little gas station in Pheba, and they dropped us off just beyond it. So we all get off of the buses which turn around and head back into town. We have no other choice--we must all run 13.1 miles back to our cars. There are no timing chips, just a "go", and we were off!

Stephen is just not human, and he shows up for these half marathons with virtually no training (I am NOT exaggerating), and outruns us all! Today he set a PR (personal record) by 5 minutes. He finished in 1:42. Before the St. Jude Half (back in early December) he ran one set of 1/4 mile repeats (I think 2 repeats) ONE TIME before the race. Yes. That was his training. And he ran a 1:47. On the way down today I asked him if he had trained for this race. He said, "Yes. I have run one time since St. Jude, and it was an 8 mile run." He was prepared!

Lynn and I ran a little quicker than we usually do on long runs. I guess we were caught up in all of the race excitement. About halfway through the race there were these little children on the roadside counting out loud. They said 209, 210 when we passed by. It dawned on me, and so I asked them if they were counting runners. They said yes. For a second I felt pretty good......about 150 runners behind us, and then the man running beside Lynn and me said, "We better pick up the pace if we want to get a medal!" WHAT? Then Lynn reminded me that the website stated that medals were awarded to the first 200 finishers. That got me fired up! I did not want to run 13.1 miles and not get a medal. I told Lynn that if I did not get a medal, I would be blogging about that! So we picked up the pace! Then my more competitive than I would like to admit side kicked in. I really wanted to catch up with Kelly who started out way faster than us. Lynn and I discussed it and decided that I would run on ahead after mile 9 or so.

Big mistake on my part. I really wasn't keeping in mind that mile 9 was really mile 12 for us. What was I thinking, trying to run fast at this point? But I kept looking for Kelly. I left Lynn at mile 9.5, and I didn't catch him until mile 11.4. I was exhausted by this point. Exhausted! Thankfully, I got my mind back and slowed down until the end of the race. But I paid for it. I felt terrible those last 3 miles, and felt terrible for hours after the race. Yuk. The whole last mile I was desperately wishing that Jimmy was there, running back to drag me the last mile.

I finished in 2:08, Kelly in 2:09, and Yay for Lynn--she set a PR too. 2:10! She took 4 minutes off of her best half marathon time! I am so happy for her.

After the race we headed straight to Oby's, the most delicious place to eat in Starkville. We all used to eat there when we were in college, and it is still yummy!

I hope I recover fast, because Lynn and I have to run 16 again on Thursday. This time will be slower!

Oh, and we all got medals! Not that I was in the first 200 to finish---I was number 236. I guess they bought more medals. It's a cool medal too!