Greer Half Marathon: Race Report

Run: 13.1 Miles
Time: 2:23:00 (unofficial)
Pace: 10:55

Wow! what a morning. I got up this morning around 5:45. Had my prerace meal and a 32oz water. Watched a little of the news and then jumped in the shower. I was dressed and ready to go by 7:00. By the time my wife and daughter were ready we were pulling out of the driveway around 7:15.

My father-in-law wanted to go as well so he met us halfway and followed us on in to the start line.

After finding a parking spot and getting myself setup and ready we headed over to where the half mary start line was.

After saying a few prayers, kissing the wife and daughter I headed over to the official start line.

Before the gun went off I was just walking around trying to stay loose. Then after a few minutes the gun sounded and I was off on my journey. Let me just say this was a very small race and if I had to guess probably less then 375 runners. As we took off I was monitoring my speed very often because I did not want to start off to quickly. I was at the very back of the pack with only a couple of runners behind me and I was running about a 9:40 pace. Wow, this was a very fast group of runners to be doing a 9:40 pace and being almost dead last. I quickly told myself that I need to run "my race" and slow down a bit. After the first mile I slowed to about a 10 minute pace. In that first mile I did get a chance to wave at Neese as she was one of the volunteers for the event! Hey Neese!!!

For the first three miles it was me and two other folks a nice lady and another guy. We chatted a few minutes about how fast the pack started and at mile 2 I was feeling really good so I decided to pick up my pace a little bit and ran off ahead of them. From mile 3 to mile 10 I was able to hold right around the 10 min pace mark and felt strong.

For me the trouble started at mile 10 as I realized I hadn't had very much water or replacement drink. So I stopped and walked and drank about 6oz of Gatorade Endurance and 10oz of water which really energized me and allowed me to jump back to a nice easy pace. Much slower then what I was running early on around an 11:45 pace. From 10 on every mile seemed to get longer and longer. At around 11.5 I had to stop and walk for a brief spell and drank another 10oz water and about 4 ounces of Gatorade. At which point my lady friend had caught back up to me and passed me just before the 12 mile marker. As I was walking I thought to myself..."Hey, I only have 1 more mile to go what am I doing walking!", so, I jumped back to a very painful slow jog around mile 12.5.

The last half mile was great as a bunch of people were there clapping and cheering me on to the finish. About 500 feet before the finish I spotted my wife and daughter and it nearly brought tears to my eyes as it was a very emotional moment to me. You would have thought I just ran a 100 mile race but for me thinking back to when I was 300 pounds just 3 years ago to just finish this morning was huge for me.

Here's me hitting the finish at 2:23:00 (unofficial). Once again I forgot to stop my Garmin right away as I was completely spent!

After crossing the line my daughter wanted to help with the hydration process!

I am so excited to be able to hold under an 11 minute pace for 13.1 miles. My goal was to just try and keep it a hair below 12 minute pace. So I am very pleased. I celebrated with lots of pasta and even ice cream with my wife Ashli and daughter Gracie. What a great treat, what a great day! My father-in-law brought his video camera and took about 15 minutes of video. He is going to create a little 5 minute video with music for me. As soon as he gets it done I will post it. I was very sore most of the early afternoon but by 4 this afternoon I was feeling really good and not much soreness as of right now. Will see how I feel in the am. Have a great Saturday night! - Jason The Running Man