Rock ‘n Roll Arizona!

1:47:50 (PR)

I seem to have become a ½ marathon junky!

Overall: 1853/21462 Gender: 498/13490 A/G: 52/1488

5K 24:48 - (8:00 pace) 10 miles: 1:20:22 (8:02 pace)

We arrived in Phoenix on Saturday afternoon and have concluded that arriving on Friday would be best AND renting a car. What were we thinking “walking” all day Saturday?! We thought we could get away with just taxiing to the hotel, take the tram to the expo and dinner etc. Needless to say, we walked way too much on Saturday for a Sunday race! (One person in our party did the Marathon.)

There were over 21000 people running the ½ marathon and about 5000 people running the marathon. More people than Rock ‘n Roll Seattle or the Amica Seattle 1/2 marathon. What a rush!

Going into this race I was apprehensive about over-heating. (Seattle didn’t work too well for me and it was mid 40s at start.) I was also concerned about not running as much since the Amica Seattle ½ -- illness and foot issues prevented this. I brought warm weather clothing in hopes that Phoenix would be warmer than Seattle, which it was but not by much at the start. However, one difference was the sun was shinning!

There is a saying “don’t change anything the day of the race”. Well I did two things totally different.

o I found out through the West coast rep for "Newtons" that running in wider shoes would help alleviate my Morton’s Neuroma so I bought new shoes .. still Newtons but in a men’s size. No breaking in necessary. J

o I changed the shorts I usually wear which is Tri Shorts. I opted for true cheap running shorts .. Champions. (I used lots of chammie cream though!)

o I was fortunate enough to grab at the start salt packets for my G2 (yes .. I like basic, no-nonsense drinks. Cytomax hurts my stomach.)

The only bad part of this ½ marathon was that it was Mind Numbingly BORING! I hate to say this, but I missed my up and down hills of the Seattle/Washington state area. No scenery to look at, only hopes of glimpsing at these “hills” indicating the finish area. Seriously boring. Not sure I would do this again except for the warm, dry weather. Oh, and something else I realized once I was home was that my asthma and breathing was so much better in AZ! Wow. What an eye opener that is. (Wish my parents would move there!)

I was hoping for a PR of 1:45:00 (8:00/pace) but couldn’t hold it. Come to find out we had a head wind!! At about mile 8/9 I was becoming toast and was trying to hide behind people shielding from the wind, but had I thought of it earlier I may have lasted longer.

Another learning lesson for me!