What happened in Pasadena...official race report

On Saturday morning, I crawled out of bed as Travis was heading out to golf with his buddies. I had some chores to do before heading out of town with Nell to make it to the Expo in Pasadena for the inaugural Rock N Roll Half Marathon.

After a Walgreens and Starbucks run, it was smooth sailing west on I-210 and into the parking garage at the Pasadena Convention Center. Downtown Pasadena is just too cool; the buildings are gorgeous with pillars and scrolls, and much of the sidewalks have brick detail. Someone definitely cared about how they wanted the city to look when they built it.

The race expo was well organized, but fairly small. At the expo, Nell got new Brooks shoes (love them) and some headbands, including one for me to add horsepower to my race. Michelob beer garden wristbands and a few samples later, and we were out the door with our race numbers and tags.

We were off to lululemon athletica to shop. Love. Their. Clothes. I saw a running skirt online that I was bound and determined to run the race in, but once we got in there, I got wrapped up in the moment. I tried on a few outfits and was prepared to go waaaay over budget. Nell bought everything she tried on (three complete outfits) and was ahead of me at the cash register. I panicked. I put back the outfit I was about to purchase and just got the original skirt I wanted.

Nell and I met up with Karrie and Adrianne, a pair of MBFC girls, who were also running Pasadena's HM. We talked about our goals for the race and how we were all feeling pre-race.

Adrianne had made beaded bracelets with charm affirmations. Mine says BELIEVE in beads. The charm says IMAGINE. It's very thematic for all things in my life right now...including my horsemanship. There's much to be said about visualization for me. I really thought about visualizing making it in 2 hours.

Then Karrie told Genelle, Adrianne, and me an amazing story. (We first met Karrie at the Vegas Marathon. She was inspired by Jaylene's 105lb weightloss story that she had seen on AOL.com and she knew a bunch of girls were there to run the half or the full, so she showed up in Vegas to meet us and face her first HM.) So her story is that her car was enveloped in an avalanche last April in Lake Tahoe. All windows were crushed in. She was waiting for OnStar to call and get help for her, but the rear view mirror had crashed down into her car under the weight of the snow. She was able to knock a hole in the snow and saw the blue sky. Someone who saw that she was still alive in there called for help. She showed us unbelievable pictures of the aftermath. It was shocking. I found this online with an article about her ordeal.

She told us that thought she was going to die in there....and in her disorientation and fear, she thought she couldn't save herself because of her weight.

That day changed her life. She's now showing up at half marathons.

"If you can survive an avalanche, you can achieve your goal tomorrow!" I said when she told us she just wanted to beat her time from her previous two HMs (Vegas 2011 and Surf City).

We made a plan to meet Adrianne and Karrie in the morning and headed off to Studio City to spend the night at Moo's. We ate dinner at Lala's...a Peruvian restaurant with really good food. I was worried when she said Peruvian. I was thinking spicy food pre-race was not a good idea, but it was actually a little on the bland side and just what I needed. I ordered veggie skewers with rice and mashed potatoes. And water....lots of water. (Arizona: lesson learned.) Table talk consisted of everything from all-things religion to the most gratuitous TMI you've ever seen at dinner. We stayed up and set up our bibs on our race clothes, chatting with Moo and her boyfriend Shalom (name changed to protect the innocent), and Nell and Shalom bantered about everything from ethnicity to psychological problems.


We turned in on an aerobed, under the watchful eyebrows of Olive, the schnauzer.

I called Travis to tell him "good night and I love you", so he said good night and I love you to both me and Nell. Alarms will be ringing at 5:00. We needed to be at the Rose Bowl at 5:45am.


Race Day


At 4:45, Genelle got up.


"Are you OK?" I asked.


"I can't sleep. Can we go?"


"OK."


Olive didn't budge, but her eyebrows sure did. She couldn't understand what was so important at such an hour.

When we got to the Rose Bowl parking lot, we laid back and tried to sleep, but we could only eke out about 15 minutes of rest. Slowly but surely, we did last minute gear checks and forced down half a banana while we got ready. 

I don't normally write messages on my arm, but I did this morning. Inspired by the horsey headband Nell got for me, the two horses I have at home and the 2 hour goal, I wrote:

My phone buzzed at 6:46am. I thought it was an alarm. But it was a text. Yay! I love race-day texts.


Travis: I love you and am proud of you.


I called him immediately. "Are you awake?"


"No." He said. "I just wanted to let you know I am proud of you."


"Tell Coach I said good morning and thanks for the night-night love." Nell yelled. Travis laughed.


We met up with Karrie and Adrianne at the potties (a much better setup than I experienced in Arizona). They both were in brand new lululemon outfits. 

The dirty reality of races...

With Adrianne, Nell and Karrie

As we separated to go into our corrals, Genelle yelled "2HP, baby!" 


My phone buzzed again.


Moo: Good morning! Had fun last night. Have you started yet?


I responded with this picture.

Traditional self-portrait at the start line

The National Anthem was sung and they began letting the wheelchair athletes and the elite runners out. Then a minute at a time until my Corral 3 was released.

As we ran out of the Rose Bowl south on Arroyo, under the bridge and into a neighborhood of overhanging trees and craftsman-style homes, I began to fidget with my hip pouch. As I ran along at a 9:09 minute per mile pace, I decided to move my phone to the mid-back pocket of my new skirt. I wasn't going to be making phone calls today. I wanted to finish in as close to 2 hours as I could get. 


I felt someone tap my shoulder. I looked over. He handed me a folded $20 that had fallen out of my pocket while I was rearranging. "You're awesome!" I exclaimed. "Thank you!" He smiled and sped on past me. I never saw him again. I hope he got a PR (personal record).

The first of many hills crept up. Slow down but don't walk, I thought.

Miles 2 and 3 brought an additional 150 feet of elevation, but I maintained a 9:24 for each. I was rubbernecking the entire time. The homes provided outstanding scenery. Perfectly manicured lawns. The enormous Tournament of Roses mansion.

On Colorado Boulevard, the lululemon staff were out on the street bright and early. I waved and they screamed when they saw this runner in the skirt I bought from their store yesterday.

I was feeling good, but I need a downhill. I would need to pick up the pace if I wanted to meet my goal.

Finally, a little relief at mile 4, where I pulled out a 9:08. While heading to Mile 5, the elite athletes and wheelchair competitors were in the opposite lane burning pavement at mile 8. Wow, those people are impressive. Mile 5, downhill, I was über-happy with an 8:47. A slight downhill on mile 6 gave me an 9:04. Keep pushing, I told myself. This isn't going to cut it.

Uphill on mile 7, I screamed when I saw Adrianne, managed a hug-and-run with Nell and pulled off an 8:58. Shortly thereafter, I saw Karrie and I shouted "You survived an avalanche!" as we passed one another.

At mile 8, I ran past the lululemon staff again, who all stood for 20-high-fives-in-a-row cheering me on with my 9:05.


I rounded a corner and realized I was atop the gorgeous West Colorado Blvd. bridge. I looked over and could see the Rose Bowl in the distance. Where else can you see the finish line from 4 miles away? It was awesome! I wanted to take a picture, but I knew it was going to be too close to stop. I kept going.

On mile 10, there was a nasty climb into Brookside Park before a turnaround swept us back toward the Rose Bowl. We gained 108 feet, but I stuck to my guns and was rewarded with a 208 foot elevation loss. How does 8:39 sound? Woohoo! I might actually make this happen!!


The 75 foot gain in mile 11 burned a little, but still pulled off a 9:09. 


Another 74 foot gain in mile 12 and thirst had set in. I needed a drink and grabbed a Gatorade at the next water station. It was a bit congested and I didn't want to stop, but I slowed quite a bit there. I got a half a sip but it was too salty. I just wanted water. I chucked the cup and gave up. All that for nothing but lost seconds. Ouch! 9:51 caused some worry to kick in.

Thankfully, there was a slight downhill toward the finish line. OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass" came on my iPod. "Run like hell. When the morning comes."

Mile 13's split was an 8:44.

Nell's sister Jaylene, sister's husband Mike, and friend Analea were cheering at the mile 13 mark. They screamed my name as I passed them.

Mike & Jaylene (who has lost 105 lbs naturally)

I had nothing left. I pushed across the finish line with an official finish time of 2:00:49.

I guess my visualization worked. Not much more, but nothing less. I made it as close to 2 hours as you can get. It was also an 11 minute PR over my fastest 13.1 miles.

Another awesome medal from the RNR races

I limped over to the Michelob beer garden and sat in the grass. I cracked open my free race beer (it's known for being a good recovery drink) and called Travis. His approval and support is better than these medals I'm racking up. And they're nice medals. Surprisingly, I felt good enough to go find Jaylene, Mike and Analea after the beer.

I had check-in texts from Jason and Jenn. 

Then I saw the text from Nell that buzzed my phone after I saw her on the course: You look like 4 horse!!! You are far ahead of the 2 hour pace group. Dig deep Suz!! It's only a small moment in time. XO

So why was I ahead of the pace group, but didn't come in under 2 hours? They had a different start time. I'm glad I didn't see them. I might have panicked. I might have had a different race.

I've learned the difference between a run and a race. Yesterday, for me, I raced. It was a much better experience for me in the learning curve, because my training runs used to be all out efforts and I was burning out, wasn't completing training schedules, and had not much to give to my races. In the weeks since Arizona, when I decided I needed to focus on my training and not on my events, it made my event a much more rewarding experience.

Oh, Adrianne and Karrie beat their previous HM times! Nell eats half marathons for breakfast, so this was a good training run for her. She's planning a big PR at San Francisco this year.