Monday, May 7, 2012

St. Jude Country Music Half Marathon (Nashville, TN)

This post was a long time coming, I just haven't had the time to do a thorough write up! And warning, it's a bit long.

On April 28th, I completed my very first half-marathon, which was the St. Jude Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville, TN. Now I've been looking forward to this for months and months, and I can't believe that this weekend finally happened! I'm pretty sure my friends and co-workers are going to be pretty happy it's over, so I can finally stop talking about it!

Since I haven't had any personal days since the Christmas holidays, I decided to treat myself to a weekend in Nashville and a couple of days at home in Georgia (this also let me pay for just 1 plane ticket). I flew into Atlanta on Thursday night (after a mad dash to the airport, PSA: give yourself a LOT of time to get yourself to LaGuardia airport on a rainy Thursday afternoon), and did the 4 hour drive on Friday morning (after picking up Chick Fil A breakfast of course). I've done the drive between Atlanta and Nashville many times, since my parents moved to GA my senior year of college when I was living in Nashville, so it was literally a trip down memory lane. Luckily the traffic was nonexistent, and I cruised easily into Nashville, where I picked up my friend Kate from the airport (she flew down from NY for the race as well). Kate had also picked up 2 fellow racers on the plane, so I gave them a ride to the Expo as well. I had never been to a marathon expo, so it was an interesting experience for me, even though it was a bit overwhelming. Met up with some other out of town friends, and ended up having a late lunch at Noshville, one of my favorite casual restaurants in Nashville. Yes, I know that going to an "authentic NY deli" in Nashville is a bit weird when you're visiting FROM New York, but they have amazing french toast and I figured it would be a good pre-race meal.


Then we ended up walking around Vanderbilt's campus, which I haven't stepped foot on in years. It was a bit surreal, it was different but still familiar at the same time. The lawn was set up for graduation which is next week, and it just made me feel a bit old. Reminded me that it's been a whole five years since I graduated from college. Eep! Apparently I haven't changed much though, as I discovered after just a few minute of reuniting with my old college roommate, who still lives in Nashville! I was super excited to hear that she would be doing the half marathon as well when I asked if I could crash at her place. After a simple and hearty dinner at another old college standby, Jackson's, and a quickie cookie run at the grocery store with Kate, I went to bed early with several nervous butterflies in my stomach.

The race was to start at 7am, and we were staying about a mile from the starting line, so we figured waking up at 5am would give up plenty of time. I woke up and had some oatmeal and my daily Diet Coke (I know it's so bad for you, but I'm addicted), and got dressed. I wasn't 100% sure what I would be wearing, since I wasn't sure what the weather would be like, but since it was pretty warm even at 5am, I decided that the smart thing to do would be to wear as little clothing as possible. Decided on my lululemon Cool Racerback Tank in Flash with the matching headband, and a pair of the lululemon Speed shorts with some reflective ruffle detail. Kate and I totally matched, as she rocked the lululemon No Limits tank in Flash. Flash is one of my favorite lululemon shades right now, and it's super bright and easy to spot, which is great for races. By the way I spotted a LOT of lululemon during the half marathon, it was one of the ways I was entertaining myself!

Twinzzzzz! Look how happy and excited I look right here. Little did I know...

When we got to the start in Centennial Park, we finally realized how big this race was!! And.... how long the lines were for the portapotties. We started to panic a little bit when we realized that we were probably going to miss the starts for our assigned corral numbers. But we both needed the security of going before we started the race. Kate bolted as soon as she was done, and I ended up about 4 corrals behind the one I was originally assigned to. I wish I had taken the time to stretch a bit more before just jumping in, which is one of the major mistakes I made that day. 

Warning: there is a LOT of whining coming ahead. This was a very tough race for me, and I'm going to learn from my mistakes in the future, but it was a very frustrating ordeal. 


I should have trained more extensively before attempting this half-marathon. The longest race I had ever run was 15K (9.32 miles), and the longest training run I had gone on was 10 miles (in Central Park). But a few weeks before this race, my left ankle had started to bother me. I know that as a newbie runner, I need to be very careful about overtraining and not injuring myself. Thankfully I had been fine up till now, but now my left ankle was sore and hurt a bit after running. I should have paid more attention to it and iced it, but I just shrugged it off as normal. But to give it a rest before the half, I hadn't really gone on any longer runs recently. 

Started off at a decent pace, not too fast, since I knew that I didn't want to get too tired early. Not sure what my exact splits were (haven't uploaded my Garmin data yet) but it was a slightly bit slower than how I ran my previous 3 (shorter) races. The first 2 miles went decently ok, considering that my left ankle had already started throbbing, and I spotted Sarah who was cheering us all on right at Mile 2 like planned, which was awesome! Then around Mile 3 I started getting a cramp in my side, which was incredibly annoying. I slowed down, tried to stretch a bit, but it never really went away for good. Also, the hills of Nashville were KILLING ME. Everyone warned me it would be hilly, but I figured since I've run in Central Park often, that I'd be ok. I was dead wrong. I finished the first 5K in 27:43, which was the slowest I've ever run that distance. And the hills kept coming. I was struggling even before I hit 10k, which I ran in 58:54. 

And let's not forget the heat. I've only really started running late last summer/early fall, so I never really experienced running when it was really hot outside. And my first three races were luckily in relatively cooler weather. Now I am a major sweater, and my tank top was drenched pretty soon. To cool off, whenever I was grab a drink of water, I would also dump some on myself. I'm pretty sure I looked like a drowned rat, but I didn't care at that point. There really wasn't that much shade either, which made it even more painful. 

Even though I was in pain and absolutely miserable, the race was still pretty cool! I had never run in Nashville before, and since I wasn't familiar with the course at all, it was fun to see what was coming next (unless it was another hill). And there were plenty of spectators cheering the runners on, which is always amazing! And lots of day drinkers who were taking advantage of the nice weather, whom I was very jealous of! Especially the older couple who had set up a fancy schmancy table on their front lawn, drinking chilled champagne in flutes. I also was surprised to recognize some familiar faces from my years in Nashville.

I pretty much hit a major wall after the first 10K. My ankle was killing me so I was limping/running at a very slow pace, and definitely over compensated with my right leg. I was hot, I was sweaty, I was tired, all I wanted to do was stop running and go throw up on the sidelines. The energy chews that I brought with me made my jaw lock up every time I tried to eat one, which has never happened to me before. Even though I tried to drink some Gatorade at a few of the water stops, I could feel that I was running out of energy to push through to the end. But I knew that once I started walking, I would never start running again during this race. I could tell because the two times I paused briefly to drink some Gatorade (I don't want sticky Gatorade residue to be on my skin, and I'm a messy drinker-while-running), my legs almost gave up on me. So I knew I had to just keep moving, even if it was at a glacial pace.

Even during my practice runs, I hate it when I give up. The feeling of giving up is something that I despise everytime I experience it. I was disappointed that I wasn't going to meet my goal time, I was disappointed that this race wasn't going as I planned, but I knew that nothing would top the disappointment of giving up running this race. My ankle hurt, I had a cramp in my left side, I was thirsty (soooo... soooo thirsty), the sun was hot, I was sweaty and stinky, and all I wanted to do was go lay down in some air conditioned room. The last hill before the finish was the absolute worst. Seeing my friend Sarah yelling my name and trying to pump me up at Mile 12 was encouraging, but I was already feeling defeated with just over a mile to go. Limping and hobbling will do that to you. Towards the end, I was a seriously angry person. I scowled at the little kids who wanted high 5s... wanted to punch the people who wanted to hand me a beer... if you didn't have a cup of water to hand me, I didn't want to talk to you. 

Told you there was a lot of whining. Trying to get it out on here, and move forward from it. 

When I finally crossed the finish line, I was completely spent. I felt very light headed, but couldn't even speak the words to ask for medical help. Luckily I ran into my other friends who finished before me, and made sure that I drank lots of water, as well as drinking some chocolate milk and eating some bananas. It was only after a while that I started to feel normal. I will spare y'all the intense whining and bitching and moaning that occurred afterwards. My ankle is still hurting, it hurt to walk up the stairs, and it sucked. BUT.... I finished!


Official time- 02:22:40 (10:53/mi)
5K- 27:43
10K- 58:54

And even though the pain sucked, I'm so glad that I did it, and getting to spend the rest of the weekend with my friends in a city that I love made it all worthwhile in the end!

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