Sacramento Cowtown Half Marathon Report

Today was a special day. Not just another half marathon for me, not this one is special. What a perfect day! The High temp was supposed to be 77*F and the temp at the start of the race was a blistfully perfect 48*F. I got to the park with 45minutes to spare before the race and high tailed it to checkin to get my bib and chip. I checked my sweat bag and found my way among the other runners to the 2h5m pace group. I figured this was perfect since I ran a 2:11:40 or so last half marathon. We were supposed to be running about 9:35 but the first mile was about 10 minutes due to runner traffic congestion. As it thinned out we sped up. We ran through some great neighborhoods and dreamed of living in such sweet houses then remembered where we were. Nope no living in Sac for me thank you very much. There were water and Cytomax stations every two miles. First stop I took one cup of each to see how it tasted. Not bad... not really good either. At mile 4 I took two Cytomax and almost to 5 I thought I should have taken a GU and water there. Too late. We ran along the levy and through parks. I actually gradually got a little faster except for the couple of little hills that slowed me down a bit. At about mile 3 I got in front of the 2:05 pace group but already couldn't see the 2hour pace group. It took me all the way til mile 11 to catch up with them. By then I had been playing leap frog with a really hot guy from mile 7 or so on. He would follow me for a while then I would follow him for a while. By the time we got back to the park I was about spent. I had run the last three miles at nearly my threshold pace and the last half mile it showed. I was dragging. No matter how much I willed my legs and body to go they just kept slowing down. I did get to the point where I saw the finish line and just kept going... no more slowing down. Lets finish this right! I did cross the line with the clock running under 2 hours above me. My Garmin said 1:58:16 and I was both surprised and excited to see the results showed my chip time even better than that, 1:57:46. I was so excited! In looking for the bag check I got cold! So cold. I stretched really good, ate an orange, ate a piece of bread, ate some rice chips, stretched somemore, still cold. So I bought a really cute green sweatshirt that says COWTOWN marathon on it. yep, even though I didnt run THE marathon I still bought me some warmth.

this was the first time I've run in a race with a finishing medal. It was so cool, but not really a medal. It was a cowbell. I loved it though. It really sounds like a cowbell to! The kids are already tired of hearing it. I stretched again when I got home then took an ice bath to sooth the muscles and the CRAZY chaffing I got on my inner thieghs (got any ideas how to fix that? you know ... now that its done and all?) They are so sore, they look more like scratches then chaffing. All I have to say is OUCH and I won't be running anything longer than a 5k in those anymore. I wore my brookds today and my feet felt GREAT! The more I wear them the more I like them, go figure. So BodyGlide is the Shit, although not the shit on the places you don't use it. GU lemon/lime was better than the chocolate I'm been using. The strawberry luna moons are ok but not great. Sacramento Cowtown, overall ROCKED!

Here are the stats

690/2330
Tina Mickelson Chico CA
Bib #1377
Age 30 39/228 F 30-34 group
Chip time 1:57:47.0
Gun time 1:58:41.4
difference 0:54.3
Pace 8:59/Mile