Rock n' Roll San Antonio
December 7, 2014
Half Marathon Race Report
Race morning is here. I registered for this race in December of 2013. It was supposed to be my marathon. My redemption marathon at that. But through a series of frustrating lingering injuries I decided at the end of the summer to drop back to the half marathon. My initial goal was this was going to be my time goal race, my half marathon PR attempt. The injury continued to linger and I was sick for the month and half before the race so my goal when I woke up in the morning was to just finish the race.
I had everything laid out the night before so I got ready, made my breakfast (a peanut butter sandwich) and headed on my way to the race start at the Alamodome. It was a little over a mile walk from the Wyndham to the start line.
The walk wasn't bad, it was an easy straight shot and a decent warm up for the race. There were a bunch of other people walking too so I wasn't alone on my road to the start. Getting to the start I found some serious layout issues before the race started that would definately annoy me at the end of the race. I accidentally turned the wrong way and went up the wrong set of stairs and found myself in the finishers area. Yes there were stairs to get out of the finishers area. I used the port-a-potty on that side 2 hours before the start of the race, it was pretty quiet still and the port-a-potties were disgusting. They were out of TP, they were a mess. I'm guessing they didn't have them serviced after the 10k the day before? Seemed a bit odd to me.
I left the finishers area and finally found may way towards bag check (which led me down the stairs from the finishers area, up the starts to the start area, down the stairs, up the stairs and down lots of stairs to the floor of the Alamodome. Do they not realize people are going to have to do this after running a half marathon or full marathon? I was already lamenting the fact I would have to repeat this after the face was over.
Gear check at the Alamodome.
Having checked my gear I used the restroom again inside the Alamodome and for good measure got back in line for the port-a-potties outside where I ran into some old running team members from the year before.
Finally I headed over to the coral to meet up with Amy. She was running her first marathon and I was going to run with her to start the race.
It was 54° F and overcast at the start of the race. It didn't warm up a lot which was probably due to the clouds but it made for a good running weather day.
Mile 1-1/2 pretty much the only scenic part of the run - a run past the Alamo.
A little blurry but I managed a running selfie of Amy and I.
Amy and our old teammate Jenni at the water stop around mile 5.
The first 5 miles were pretty good. My knee was hurting a little from the very first step at the start of the race but not enough to make me stop.
Mile 1 - 12:14
Mile 2 - 11:34
Mile 3 - 11:45
Mile 4 - 12:00
Mile 5 - 11:54
And then we hit the hills. I knew there was a hill. Somehow I thought there was one hill. I didn't quite realize what I was getting myself into.
The hill just went on and on and one. There was a small (very steep) downhill but it was a lot of steep hill from mile 5.25 to mile 6.9. The lack of conditioning from being sick for the past month and my knee caught up with me in that mile and a half section.
Mile 6 - 12.16
Mile 7 - 12:50
This was a scenic part of the run if you could get past the OMG this hill is killing me part. We ran by the zoo and through Trinity College. Amy is an Alumni from Trinity so that was fun.
Just past Mile 7 I told Amy to go on without me as she still had a marathon to complete and I didn't want to slow her down. I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up the pace and needed a couple extra walk breaks to recover from the hills. The downhill section was easier but a little tricky on my knee.
Even with that once I recovered a little from the hills I was able to keep pace a little bit for the next couple of miles
Mile 8 - 12:38
Mile 9 - 12:54
Between mile 9 and 10 I ran within a block of our resort so my parents, husband and girls came out to cheer me on. I was very happy to see smiling faces. I stopped for about 20 seconds to give hugs and pass off my rings (my fingers were swelling) before heading back on the course.
Mile 10 - 13:20 (per GPS moving time 13:00 actual time 13:20 - the reason I know how long I stopped).
Mile 11 - 14:01 (yes I was getting very slow now)
The split off for the full marathon was right past mile 11. I was so happy I was following the blue sign and not the red one today even if I was a bit bummed earlier about not running the full marathon as planned. There is no way I would have made it. I was just ready to be done.
Something else they didn't really tell you - the end of the course was a gradual up hill battle. Starting at mile 11.5 to the end it was a gradual uphill climb into the wind.
Mile 12 - 14:14
Mile 13 - 14:44
Finish 2:50:09 average pace 13:47
I did it. I finished and survived.
After the race I made it through the finishers shoot. I think I found a banana and a bag of chips. They were a great bag of chips. I got my milar blanket, skipped the merchandise tents and massage tents, the picture stop and pretty much everything and started my way to the dreaded stairs. I'd actually forgotten about them during my run, but there they were. Evil, evil stairs. I wish I'd have actually kept track of how many there were. I just know there were a lot of stairs and the escalators weren't on in the Alamodome.
I got my gear, changed my shirt went back up all the evil stairs and started the mile+ walk back to the resort. Somehow it seemed much, much longer on the way back than it did on the way there. I called my dad and asked him to make lunch on my way back so it was ready when I got there. That was a great decision as I was able to eat immediately and hold off the post race yuck feeling.
For many reasons I likely won't run this race again. You'll notice I didn't mention the Rock n Roll part of this race. That would be because it was completely unmemorable. I can't tell you where or what music was played. Half the bandstands didn't even have anyone playing when I ran by. The start/finish line logistics. I'm sorry but the stairs are just wrong. The route itself was jut not inspiring. There are a lot of nice areas of San Antonio but it didn't feel like you ran by many of them. Competitor in general. I hate that they charge you to sign up for runner tracking and a bunch of other little things. The medal's and shirts were uninspiring and don't make me want to repeat the experience. All in all, I registered for this race based on location and timing and that I was planning it to be a full marathon and wanted the family to be there with me. I might feel differently if I ran the full marathon but I definitely wouldn't travel for a half marathon like this in the future. It felt like a local race and I can run lots of local Houston half marathons with better crowd support and on course entertainment that doesn't require a weekend travel.
To finish off the race weekend, after I ate lunch, showered and changed and watched some of the Texans game, we drove up to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch and the Natural Bridge Caverns. It was a lot of fun. We all loved driving through the Wildlife Ranch. They expanded it since we were last there. The Caverns also expanded since we were there last. We took one of the special Christmas Tours called Journey to Bethlehem. It was beautiful but I probably should have paid better attention to the fact that there were 265 stairs down and back up. (again with the stairs, my legs were screaming at me). We wandered through the Christmas Village and had a great time in the maze searching for Santa's Reindeer. We finished off the evening with a Hayride through some beautiful light displays.
I had everything laid out the night before so I got ready, made my breakfast (a peanut butter sandwich) and headed on my way to the race start at the Alamodome. It was a little over a mile walk from the Wyndham to the start line.
The walk wasn't bad, it was an easy straight shot and a decent warm up for the race. There were a bunch of other people walking too so I wasn't alone on my road to the start. Getting to the start I found some serious layout issues before the race started that would definately annoy me at the end of the race. I accidentally turned the wrong way and went up the wrong set of stairs and found myself in the finishers area. Yes there were stairs to get out of the finishers area. I used the port-a-potty on that side 2 hours before the start of the race, it was pretty quiet still and the port-a-potties were disgusting. They were out of TP, they were a mess. I'm guessing they didn't have them serviced after the 10k the day before? Seemed a bit odd to me.
I left the finishers area and finally found may way towards bag check (which led me down the stairs from the finishers area, up the starts to the start area, down the stairs, up the stairs and down lots of stairs to the floor of the Alamodome. Do they not realize people are going to have to do this after running a half marathon or full marathon? I was already lamenting the fact I would have to repeat this after the face was over.
Having checked my gear I used the restroom again inside the Alamodome and for good measure got back in line for the port-a-potties outside where I ran into some old running team members from the year before.
Finally I headed over to the coral to meet up with Amy. She was running her first marathon and I was going to run with her to start the race.
Amy and I at the start of the race - all smiles and ready to go.
It was 54° F and overcast at the start of the race. It didn't warm up a lot which was probably due to the clouds but it made for a good running weather day.
Mile 1-1/2 pretty much the only scenic part of the run - a run past the Alamo.
A little blurry but I managed a running selfie of Amy and I.
The first 5 miles were pretty good. My knee was hurting a little from the very first step at the start of the race but not enough to make me stop.
Mile 1 - 12:14
Mile 2 - 11:34
Mile 3 - 11:45
Mile 4 - 12:00
Mile 5 - 11:54
And then we hit the hills. I knew there was a hill. Somehow I thought there was one hill. I didn't quite realize what I was getting myself into.
The hill just went on and on and one. There was a small (very steep) downhill but it was a lot of steep hill from mile 5.25 to mile 6.9. The lack of conditioning from being sick for the past month and my knee caught up with me in that mile and a half section.
Mile 6 - 12.16
Mile 7 - 12:50
This was a scenic part of the run if you could get past the OMG this hill is killing me part. We ran by the zoo and through Trinity College. Amy is an Alumni from Trinity so that was fun.
Just past Mile 7 I told Amy to go on without me as she still had a marathon to complete and I didn't want to slow her down. I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up the pace and needed a couple extra walk breaks to recover from the hills. The downhill section was easier but a little tricky on my knee.
Even with that once I recovered a little from the hills I was able to keep pace a little bit for the next couple of miles
Mile 8 - 12:38
Mile 9 - 12:54
Between mile 9 and 10 I ran within a block of our resort so my parents, husband and girls came out to cheer me on. I was very happy to see smiling faces. I stopped for about 20 seconds to give hugs and pass off my rings (my fingers were swelling) before heading back on the course.
Mile 10 - 13:20 (per GPS moving time 13:00 actual time 13:20 - the reason I know how long I stopped).
Mile 11 - 14:01 (yes I was getting very slow now)
The split off for the full marathon was right past mile 11. I was so happy I was following the blue sign and not the red one today even if I was a bit bummed earlier about not running the full marathon as planned. There is no way I would have made it. I was just ready to be done.
Something else they didn't really tell you - the end of the course was a gradual up hill battle. Starting at mile 11.5 to the end it was a gradual uphill climb into the wind.
Mile 12 - 14:14
Mile 13 - 14:44
Finish 2:50:09 average pace 13:47
I did it. I finished and survived.
After the race I made it through the finishers shoot. I think I found a banana and a bag of chips. They were a great bag of chips. I got my milar blanket, skipped the merchandise tents and massage tents, the picture stop and pretty much everything and started my way to the dreaded stairs. I'd actually forgotten about them during my run, but there they were. Evil, evil stairs. I wish I'd have actually kept track of how many there were. I just know there were a lot of stairs and the escalators weren't on in the Alamodome.
I got my gear, changed my shirt went back up all the evil stairs and started the mile+ walk back to the resort. Somehow it seemed much, much longer on the way back than it did on the way there. I called my dad and asked him to make lunch on my way back so it was ready when I got there. That was a great decision as I was able to eat immediately and hold off the post race yuck feeling.
To finish off the race weekend, after I ate lunch, showered and changed and watched some of the Texans game, we drove up to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch and the Natural Bridge Caverns. It was a lot of fun. We all loved driving through the Wildlife Ranch. They expanded it since we were last there. The Caverns also expanded since we were there last. We took one of the special Christmas Tours called Journey to Bethlehem. It was beautiful but I probably should have paid better attention to the fact that there were 265 stairs down and back up. (again with the stairs, my legs were screaming at me). We wandered through the Christmas Village and had a great time in the maze searching for Santa's Reindeer. We finished off the evening with a Hayride through some beautiful light displays.
All in all it was a good weekend. Next race up - Katy Half Marathon in February.
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