Half the effort - twice the bling. You have to love running a relay - same swag only half the distance. ;)
Saturday morning was the inaugural running of the Katy Half Marathon, Katy Half Marathon Relay, 5k and kids 1k races.
All in all it was a great race, especially for an inaugural event. I have a few complaints that I will address later but I was impressed with the race.
First I will start with Packet Pick up.
They had multiple pick up dates which was great but I do not understand some of the pick up decisions.
The first pick up was Sunday but it was only for half marathon participants so if you had a kid in the kids 1k, were running the relay or the 5k you could not pick up the race packet this day. This was mildly inconvenient as it was the only weekend pick up option since the race was on Saturday.
They had additional pickup options on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Life time fitness in City Center. This was "on my way home from work" so I stopped Tuesday since Tuesday is not a dance night and I have a little more time. It's a good thing I wasn't in a rush because getting into and out of the city center took me well over an hour. They did give me the race packets for myself and my relay partner as well as my 2 kids race packets.
Thursday and Friday pick up was at the Life Time Fitness in Cinco Ranch Katy. This is more logical since it is a Katy race. If I'd have remembered Friday was my Friday off I would have just waited to get it all until Friday. As it was I had to go back Friday to the "expo" because I was missing my food band in my race bag. The "Friday Expo" consisted of 2 tables so it wasn't much of an expo.
Moving on to race day.
Saturday morning was chilly and foggy. Very, very foggy. The race was scheduled to start at 6:30am. Fears of parking/traffic problems meant I wanted to leave my house by 5:00am, so the alarm was set for 4:15am. I almost forgot my contacts so it was 5:10am when I was walking out the door, but that turned out to be plenty of time. (I'm really glad I didn't forget my contacts, the glasses and the fog would have been a bad combination). I wasn't sure what I wanted to wear. The forecast was for temps on the 40's - 50's at the start and warming up to 70's for the high. I decided it was time for a Princess 10k trial run, so Queen Elsa it was. Sparkle Skirt, shirt, Cape and visor. I had a long sleeve shirt that matched my Queen Elsa running costume and brought along a black trash bag for the corral. Black lawn trash bags, worn as a skirt do a great job of keeping your legs warm in the corrals.
I got to the parking lot and parked before 5:30am. It took a few minutes to motivate to leave the nice warm car for the cold air outside.
I met up with my running group outside the entrance to the mall for a pre-race breakfast club team picture.
It was then time to head over to the requisite pre-race porta-potty stop.
We also had to stop for a podium picture. (We are all winners) (Don't you love my black trash bag skirt?)
To continue my race technology issues - my gymboss wouldn't turn on when I got to the race. I'm guessing the battery had enough. Of course I didn't have a spare battery so I had to set my garmin to do my intervals. this isn't a problem, except that the only way to adjust the intervals on the Garmin is to pause the workout. That is problematic when you are trying to keep track of race paces/times. I decided to set it to 45/15 to see how it went.
I think I mentioned it was foggy outside. Well the fog was so thick that the 6:30 am start was delayed about 10 minutes or so to let it lift some. I couldn't hear the announcements, race start or the national anthem from the 2:30 start corral, but really you just have to follow the people in front of you so it really isn't a big deal.
The race started and as usual I started out too fast. One of these days I will learn how to slow down at the start of a race. It was very crowded for that first mile and I'm always afraid of messing up someone behind me or getting run over, so I skipped my first 2-3 walk breaks. (Never a good idea really). About half way through the first mile I warmed up enough to pull off my trashbag skirt. I ran the first mile in 11:14 and my lower legs were feeling it.
I was so tight and in a lot of pain after just the first mile or so. I settled into my 45/15 intervals but they were just not providing enough recovery time. I had to change my intervals. I did a bit at 1:1 (running 2 intervals and then walking 2 intervals). And then tried 1:15/45 (running 3 intervals and walking the 45 second interval)
Mile 2 - (and the start of the 2nd loop around the mall) I finished in 12:38 and already had to stop to stretch out my legs. This was not looking good for me. I did get to see my kids and my husband briefly as they were trying to park so they would be there for the kids race.
I was getting warm so I pulled off the gloves and the long sleeve shirt and tied it around my waist. I was glad I had my bib holder on my running belt so I didn't have to unpin and move my bib from my long sleeve shirt to my short sleeve shirt.
Mile 3 - we finally leave the mall parking lot. 12:51 min/mile. The longer walk breaks were helping but my time was suffering. At the end of this mile I decided to try some longer run intervals and keep the 45 second walk interval.
I tried some 1:15/45 and then 2:15/45 and finally some 3:15/45 run intervals. Mile 4 was 12:05 and included my biggest annoyance of the race. The traffic stop right before the 5 mile marker where they stopped runners to allow traffic to cross on Katy Fort Bend Road. A better traffic plan is needed in the future. You can't get that time back.
But I was now finding my groove. Mile 5 - 11:48
Mile 6 11:52 and my next complaint about the race. The water stop near Mile 6 had ice cubes in the water. I almost choked as I was not expecting ice in a water cup on the course. It was 43 degrees outside. I don't think ice was needed for any reason and with no warning that there was ice it the cups, I'm surprised no one did choke on the ice.
The homestretch for the relay - I ran the last .75 miles in a 11:23 pace and crossed the mat and stopped my watch at 1:21:02 for the first 6.75 miles of the half marathon. I took off my "House Arrest" Relay Bracelet
And handed it off to my race partner Crystal who crossed the exit map at 1:22:29 for my "official" relay time.
I now had to get back to the start so my husband could get to work. So I took the car and drove back to the start. It was easier than I thought it would be to get there but I was nervous driving a car I wasn't used to in the fog next to the 5k runners.
I found a place to park and found my husband and my girls. At this point I had cooled down enough that I was adding layers back on again. I was freezing actually. I put my long sleeve shirt back on and found a jacket.
The girls and I headed over to the race area to find the food tent and my husband headed off to work. We had an hour or so until it was time for the kids 1k race.
We got some food and ran into one of my buddies from my running team who just PR'd the half marathon. After we ate we attempted to find the area we were supposed to go to pick up our finishers shirts and cups. It was not well labeled (or marked at all really) but we finally found it and I picked up my shirt and glass. The visors/hats weren't in due to customs problems in LA so they will be mailed to us at a later date. We went back to the car to drop off the stuff and my jacket (I warmed up some now) before the kids 1k race. The girls had a chance to play on the bounce house and then it was time to find the start of the 1k.
We finally found our way over there.
Megan and Alice - pre race.
At first Alice said she didn't want me to run with her, but she changed her mind and wanted me to run behind her, not with her for the kids 1k today. :)
The girls lined up, the horn honked and we were off.
Poor Alice didn't see the big orange cone (that was about the size of her mind you) and ran right over it and ended up on the ground with the cone under her. But she recovered very quickly and finished the 1k in 5:25. 1st female 4 year old and 5th in her age group. Megan finished in 5:01 - 5th female 8 year old and 9th in her age group. I was very proud of my girls.
After the kids race we went back to the bounce houses and they got their faces painted and had balloons made.
]
And the all important medals
Through a slight oops I ended up with 2 half marathon medals but they wouldn't take it back. So half the effort and twice the bling for me. :) Megan thought that was completely unfair
I had a few lessons learned during this race.1) a black yard trash bag worn as a skirt works wonders prerace to keep your legs warm and is easy to remove after a half a mile when you warm up. 2) when wearing a cape, it must be pinned to the shirt and not just hung around the neck
3) 15 second walk breaks do not offer enough recovery time for me. I prefer 45 sec. I shook things up and ran negative splits with the last 3.5 miles (of a 6.75 mile race) using 3:15/45 intervals and it felt great.
4) when the volunteer says they have water at the next table use your eyes before you end up passing up the last water table before Gatorade only
5) unexpected ice in your water cup on the course is not nice and is super dangerous (as I almost choked on the ice and it was 45 outside so ice really wasn't needed to keep the water cool.
6) running half of a half marathon as part of a relay is great. Half the effort for the same bling. wink emoticon
7) running a race in fog so thick you can't see more than about 10 yards (at most) is surreal but kinda cool.
8) I love my new Hoka Conquest 2 shoes. It was only my 2nd run in them and my legs felt great at the end.
I did send my comments to the race director about the traffic stop, water stations and course layout. I hope they fix some of those issues as I would really like to run this race again. It was great to have a local race that didn't require a lot of logistical issues to get there. It is a very flat course and with the weather conditions all my friends who ran the full half had half marathon PR's this weekend. Next year if it fits in with the rest of my race schedule I would like to do the entire half marathon. I did the relay this year because I have the Princess 3 race weekend coming up in less than 2 weeks and I didn't want to risk injury this close to the race.
A few race statistics
Half Marathon Statistics2,886 Registered - 2,365 Finished52 Relay Teams - 42 Finished5K Statistics632 Registered - 472 FinishedKids K Statistics159 Registered - 129 Finished
Next up the Disney Princess Triple Crown (or the Frozen 5k with the Glass Slipper Challenge (10k and half marathon)- I'm running this one for someone very special, stay tuned for details later this week.
