Take that, appendix!: the 2010 Parks Half Marathon

Last November, I ran my first race longer than a 5K. It was the 2009 Turkey Burnoff 5-miler, put on by Montgomery County Road Runners and held in Seneca Creek State Park. It was a great race in a beautiful park. During the race, I noticed hundreds of people wearing "2009 Parks Half Marathon" t-shirts. I deduced that this was another fall MCRR race, held in another beautiful park. I thought "Its too bad I don't run half-marathons because that's probably a fun race."

Little did I know that, just a couple months later, I would be training for my first half-marathon. Or that, just a few weeks after that, I would be crazy enough to sign up for a full marathon. I never would have guessed that the 2010 Parks Half Marathon would actually be my third half marathon. Funny how these things happen.

As late as this past Thursday, I didn't think I would be running at all. As I mentioned in previous posts, I've been mostly recovered from my appendectomy for about a week now, but I was still having pain at my incision sites when I tried to run. I really didn't want to bail on another race so soon after missing the A10. For the past week or so, I've been icing, taking Advil, eating tons of protein and carbs, resting, putting myself on prayer lists- anything I could think of. Something worked, because I went out for a test run yesterday, and had no pain at all. Game on!

I had to leave my house at 4:30 this morning in order to get parking and hit the last-minute packet pickup for this race. When I left, it was chilly and sheeting rain. Fortunately, by the time the race started, it had warmed up a bit and the rain had become a mere drizzle. The race started at the Rockville Metro station. At mile 2, we turned into Rock Creek park, which we ran all the way to Bethesda. The Rock Creek trail is narrow, so the race start was staggered by pace group. I put myself in the 11:15-12:00 group and stuck with them for the first 6 miles. Thanks to this slightly-slower-than-usual pace, I hit mile 6 feeling great, and decided to push it a little.

I really hit my stride for miles 6-9 and made my way to the back of the next group up. I passed a ton of people who had gone out too fast. Around mile 10, I started feeling like one of those people. I had to back off a bit for miles 10-12, but I managed to stay with my new group. Most of us picked it up in mile 13, especially when we passed a wonderful volunteer who let us know we were only 1/4 mile from the finish. I had inadvertantly left my watch at home, so I had no idea of my time as I approached the finish. I thought I might be on track to beat my best half time, 2:24, but wound up finishing at 2:35. I think I took it too easy in the beginning and too hard in the middle. Oh well. The park was beautiful and I felt 1,000 times better than I did during that half in July (shudder).

After the race, I met up with my friend Scott, who ignored my odor and took me out for a burger and a beer. The burger was some kind of CA inspired creation with avacado and sprouts. It would have been good under any circumstances, but after a long run it was unbelivable. As we ate, I thought about the fact that, just two weeks ago, I was stuck on my couch eating canned soup and icing my belly. Hooray for healing!