This past Sunday I paced the 2:40 group of the Gobbler Grind half marathon. This is a race that you can either run as a stand alone, or part of a 3 race, 3 weekend series called The Harvest Half 39.3 Series. It was the middle race with the series finishing up this coming weekend at The Pilgrim Pacer. I won't lie, I'm tired. And I'm ready to have a weekend off. I've put in a lot of miles this Fall, but the schedule isn't clear yet. I still have three more halfs before I can call it good.
It was cold at the start, but with an 8:30am race start, at least it wasn't dark. And it really did warm up pretty fast - I think my gloves were off by mile 5. The race started out well. I had several people in my group that I'd paced/ran with last weekend and I was excited to see them return for the series. It was a smaller group than last weekend, but no biggie. I took the tale pacer position again, and headed out. I noticed I started out a little fast, but that tends to happen in the first mile or so when everyone is trying figure out their pace, and are all bunched up. Our group slowed down and tried to find a rhythm. And then I noticed that the mile markers were off - short this time. So when the mile marker said 1, my watch said 0.90. The name of the game is adjust, so my pacing partner Julie and I did.
Around the five mile marker Julie and I caught up to each other for a quick chat. We'd been fast, slow, fast again, and were really going to try and even it out. She went on ahead and I slowed down and walked for a bit, just to try and even things out. The mile markers were really throwing us off, but we did our best, and trusted our Garmins, and went from there.
Indian Creek Trail is really a nice run. It follows along a creek, and is wooded, yet open enough that you never forget you're running in a city. The course is nice, and there was good support and volunteers all along. The water stops were ok. There was no Gaterade to speak of, but I made due just fine as I normally don't use that.
I finished the race at 2:41:38 - perfect for being the trailing pacer. There wasn't a lot of food at the after party, but that's ok. I had some water, a cookie, and some warm broth. I wish more races would provide broth in the colder months. It is a nice change from sweet hot chocolate.
On to next week, and my double for the season. Should be a good time. I hope I get a nap on Saturday!
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