Livelong Half Marathon for Livestrong RR

Today I ran the Livelong Half Marathon, benefiting Livestrong.  It is a weekend planned set of events during the weekend, including a HM, a 5K, and a family bike ride on Saturday and rides of different distances on Sunday.  Most of the people I saw today during the HM looked like triathletes and were going to ride tomorrow as well.

I would like to thank the people that contributed to the Livestrong cause: Chiqui74, cardholic, troy41, LonelyRoadScholar, and RedSparkle, and help in my fundraising.

Some of the people that contributed were doing it in memory of or in honor of a person that had suffered from cancer.  I included these persons in my bib and also wrote their names and put them on the display.  I also remembered their names throughout the race and called their names as I crossed the finish lines.

I was debating all week long what to wear, how to run, etc.  It is still super hot here and not only that, it's been very humid.  Today was no exception. I'm glad I chose to run this as I felt like it (meaning easy and taking each mile as it comes) and to wear as little clothes as possible.

The Good:

- Cause: The cause was good and the volunteers and survivors were out in force in support.  It was nice to feel I contributed with my fundraising and it was nice to run thinking of two people that have died from or have suffered from cancer.

- Tech shirt (a different one for females) and it's very cute.

- The After Party - Lots of food, BEER, and entertainment.  Oh, did I mention beer?  It was so hot they gave me a water bottle AND a bottle of beer at the finish line.  The finish line rocked!

- The Inhaler - The inhaler worked in the high humidity and I had no breathing issues (hooray).

- Nice packet bag!

The Bad:

- Disorganized Race - The pre-race expo was super disorganized.  For example I could see my packet but the girl did not have instructions to hand it to me, so I had to go and complain before I was allowed to take it home.  They didn't give any pins or instructions.  I had to ask around before I found the area where the packets and the shirts were.  It was disorganized during the race as well.  Part of the course was open so we had to weave by bikes and other runners on a tight course.  We didn't know whether there were any water stations, how many, or how often.  THERE WERE NO POTTA POTTIES DURING THE ENTIRE COURSE.  To top it off, read The Ugly for the real boo boo of the race.

- The "Accident" I had on Sunday - I hit my head and hit my knee on Sunday chasing after one of my cats, so I've been dealing with a goose egg above my eye (easily covered with the visor today) and some knee tenderness.  Also, it seems DH kicked me while he slept the other night because the connection between my leg and foot hurts too.  Oy!

- The Shoes - I used my Supernovas Sequence 2, that barely have 100 miles in them.  Let me just say that although I have that same shoe in different models and sizes, these ones are not going to be my marathon shoes.

The Ugly:

- The Weather - It's October, for goodness sake! Give me some 70s weather!  Start was at 80F with 90% humidity (75 dewpoint) and finish was 82F (feels like 86F) with 80% humidity (70 dewpoint). 

- The Course - Who the F designed this course?  It looked fine on the map and while I ran it but it had the following: a drawbridge (see below), 1.25 mile run inside the horse track (see below), and 5 miles in the boardwalk (which was partly bricks).  Oh, and 1.25 miles on the horse track (read below) in the mud.  No wonder I'm sore, that boardwalk was a killer (Chiqui74, be prepared for the Halloween Half because the terrain is the same) and running in the mud does not make you fast, FYI.

- The Drawbridge - The course was not hilly except for this one.  It was fine and they had told us the drawbridge would not be functioning until after 9am.  So WHY DID WE HAD A DELAY BECAUSE THE DRAWBRIDGE WENT UP?   Even if this was a fun run, I still got delayed you know!

- The Horse Track - The finish line was inside the horse track and we had to run Miles 11.86 through the end inside the track.  Running in that terrain might sound like fun but it wasn't.  First, it has been raining so instead of soft terrain, we got mud!  Mud I tell you!  When I had to enter the chute, I stepped on 2 feet of mud and my whole left foot went in.  I looked pretty muddy at the end.  Plus this terrain makes you super slow.  I was running 14mm in this terrain and everybody around me was walking because they had quit trying.

Overall, it was a fun race, a good cause, but I am not sure whether I would do this race again.  Between the course and the disorganization leading to and during the race, it makes for a very frustrating race.  However, if I were to run it again, it will be because I'm running it for the people that need to be honored or remembered and I guess that's a great reason to do this again.

So, I treated this as a regular run and came in at 2:20 which is my LR pace but with a 5 minute delay at the drawbridge, I'll take it.

Thanks for reading!

Crap, I didn't post the medal!