I did not exactly sign up to do this race...not really...or at least, not intentionally. I'd planned all along for my first half-marathon to be the Dallas White Rock on December 4th, another 3 weeks of training away, HOWEVER, if you don't want to end up doing a bunch of races you hadn't planned to, NEVER join a running club...or as I did, a drinking clubs with a running problem! I don't drink, but they needed a designated driver or a barefoot mascot...not sure which, but they got a 2-fer.
Out to lunch with the wife and a couple of the "Usual Suspects"(a group of us that run together, race together and hang out together) were planning to run the San Antonio Half. It sounded fun and I batted it around with the wife, she dug the idea of a road trip and next thing I knew, we were "IN"! I'm not complaining, it's just funny how things work out. My super awesome wife decided she should drive 5+hrs each way, so my buddy Will and I could chill and relax pre-race on the way down and take it easy/sleep on the way back! (meaning play movie after movie on the portable DVD players we'd bought to keep the kids busy on trips!) I heart her so much!!
Pic: A few of "The Usual Suspects" before the race(L to R: Kevin, Me, Phoebe, Mamma Leann and Will. FYI, that's Muscle Pharms - Pre-work out supplement Green Apple Assault in Kevin and Leann's shakers. I accidently got half the club hooked on the gym rat's equivelent to speed, with it's energy boost and ear tingling goodness, and earned the unofficial title of "Supplement Pusher"! Will, Kevin's sister (not shown), my Boss's BF, Stephen(not shown) and myself are all hopped up on Pomegranate-Blueberry flavor Generation UCAN, so I guess I've earned the title. LOL!)
As a virgin Marathon event runner and still wet behind the ears runner, I find it soothing to plan out my race, prep and prepare, but only mentally commit to the first mile. In this self-dilluding process, I aviod things like worry, stress, pre-race jitters, and reality in gernral, cause hey...it's only a mile! Once in, I get lost in the event and it's too late to back out now! It's worked for my 5ks, 10K, 15k, and this time was no differnt. I would be flipping out if I ran it in under 2:20, would be happy with 3:30 or less, but just finishing would be awesome, considering I'd done 8.4miles twice, 9.3 miles twice and 10.25miles once 3 weeks before the race! Needless to say, I felt my training was lacking and at 228lbs, I'm still heavier than I want to be.
We stopped off in Houston to have lunch with some of Phoepe's friends who were also running the race. Lost in drink and running talk, like we get, we left in time to haul major azz and BARELY make it to the Expo in time to collect our packets and say a quick hello to Barefoot Societies own Jimmy Hart at the Altra booth and buy some shoes off him. (I've never spent this much money on shoes, untill I decided to run barefoot! LOL!) The rest of the evening was no more relaxing. My wife and I almost ran out of gas, we all walked like 5 blocks to dinner and got to bed later than I would have liked. I did, however, sleep like a rock and probably could have slept right through the race! Kuddo's to the pillow stuffers working for the Marriott!!
I shower, throw on my gear, down 3 scoops of Chia and a shaker full of UCAN and head down to meet the group. Pheobe is a sub 2hr runner, usually in the 1:40s, Will is shooting to break 2hrs and Leann (PB of 2:06), Kevin (PB of 2:14) and I were going to start out at a 10m/m pace for the first 3 miles and see what happens. The crazy Texas weather had a nice warm 80deg foggy start for us and we knew that was going to take it's toll! We jump from corral 12 to 11, stand in line to the Port-a-Potty, there is no TP, but Kev and I don't need it, so no big. Kevin gets a few whacks at the giant beach ball being chucked around...the boy is zooming on Assault, ears tingling and choming at the bit! There is music everywhere, cause this is a Rock N Roll Marathon event, Baby!! and it's just plain fun! My dilusion is in full swing, so I'm totally chill, in the company of folks with my kind of addiction and just waiting for my mile to get started! I've been mildly entertained by the scattered glances at my feet, muffled whispers and less than subtle pointing at my naked feet...business as usual at pretty much every race I've ever done...or so I thought... I know from Meetup.com SanAntonio Barefoot group, I'm not alone, but I failed to line up a meet with any of them.
3-2-1, and the first wave is off! It's sorta like 6-flags, only you can't see the folks getting on the "ride" next. Once we are on deck, it turns into a giant flashdance mob, everyone poised over their GPS watches, all set to hit "start", no doubt about to crash every communications satelite above the northern hemisphere! We hit the pads in a barage of "bleeps", hang a left on to a decent down hill heavily rain grooved pavement that barely registers...more on that later! I lean into "neutral" and let gravity take me and start passing people, but my lower back pack water bottle over filled with UCAN for mid race, jostles out, throwing me off as I slow down, threatening to cause a giant pile up. Kevin, right behind me, scoops it up and hands it off. I vow to burn the evil device and put the camel pac on deck as soon as I get home! That's what I get for going cheap! We go around a bend and I clear Kevin out with a few good natured fore-arms and he points me to get, 90lb soaking wet, Leann next...so I do! She grins and says something funny and witty that escapes me now. Around mile 3, we pass the Alamo and my wife and her bestie, Abby, haler and wave at us and we stop our chatter and wave and yell back. Soon after, we pass a guy in a Police sponsered shirt running with a guy who has a prosthetic reversed "C" shaped foot and I have to swing by and fist bump him and let him know he's a bad mother! Later I saw another guy with the same thing for the other foot! Awesome! Inspiring!
We dodge and weave a little, splitting up, spreading out and coming back together, but manage to stay in a good rhythm, right at a 10:00. I point out that there are a lot of "spitters" in this race. Poor Leann told me after the race, she couldn't help but notice all the spit from that point on! LOL! Too funny! About mile 4, having walked a couple of water stops(nothing worse than sucking water up your nose trying to run and drink!), Kevin and Leann drop it into the 9s. They look back from a few people up and I wave them on and smile. The road has turned into chip seal, but my feet are all good. Just the same, I'm sticking with my plan to keep it around 10 the whole way, if I can. I'm hoping the car ride, rush to get packets and long round trip to dinner last night don't take their toll later. I'm also hearing "Crazy", "I could never", "Wow" and "Barefoot!" whispers with some regularity behind and around me as I pad along alone in the crowd. There are patches of fresh chip seal and loose black rocks in the odd intersection, but the bucket training has paid off and I'm handling it all in stride. Every so often someone runs up along side or chats me up as I'm going by and, tells me "Barefoot...Amazing", "Awesome", I'm a "Bad-Ass" or about their posative experience with barefooting, just not quite ready for this distance. A LOT of Vibram clad runners. I do my best to give every one I see a "Nice Shoes!". At least once a mile I get a "Go Barefoot Guy!" from the sideline on-lookers and I give an appreciative wave. There are a TON of people out to watch this thing! It's just amazing!! I've never seen anything like it! I get the appeal now! One guy runs up and tells me I'm his hero. I pat him on the back and say,"Low expectations! That's what I like about you,
Bro!" He laughs and continues on. I mean seriously...people passing me in a foot race like I'm standing still and "I'M" the bad-ass??
Coming up on the next water stop, I see Kevin and Leann walking, taking water and Gu and take the opportunity for a Ninja style Double-Attack-Hug! Poor Kevin gets some water down the wrong pipe and coughs Honey and water all over his hand! I do my best to appologize through my tears of laughter as the 3 of us cracking up and Kevin tries not to spew the rest of his mouth full all over us and him! Making memories...great stuff! We run together for a minute, they pull a head a bit and I keep them in view a little, but get seperated before long. At about mile 5, I start drinking my UCAN from the water bottle and down a Honey and Vitamine B Stinger Goo. BAAAAAD idea! The honey is thick and the UCAN does NOT quench my thirst! I should have gone with the plain UCAN. I start to really look forward to the water stop, wishing I would have brought my camel pac, but as we all pass half way, I'm right at an hour or so. My wife told me she got a text when I hit 6.2miles that said I was around 1:03. That's perfect! I didn't feel like I was holding back, or pushing, but the tightness in my chest, like when you swallow something that doesn't quite go all the way down, is brutal!
I didn't realize it at the time, but the sun had also come out, the temp was up and my heart rate had spiked. I'd left the strap at home in favor of traking both current pace and avge pace with distance and total time. About mile 8, I really start to slip. I'm into the 11s, my avge time is headed towards the mid 10s and the humidity was owning me! After the Gu table, it was "Sticky-Foot-City"!!! Gross!!! About that time, Leann comes up behind me and asks if I've seen Kevin. I said no, I thought Kevin was way ahead. She said no, he stopped cause his Knee was bugging him. I remembered her walking and dropping back, but didn't see Kevin. Then she took off and proceeded to finish in 2:15! Ugh! The nerve of fast people!!
A girl running a relay slows to talk to me. She's in shoes, but tells me how she got rid of her PF by running barefoot for a time. She said she's going to have to get back into it again. I told her, I've been trying to get Leann to try it to get rid of her PF. Then around mile 10, time slows, I start walking more than just the water stops and the beginnings of sore foot pads hints that it's coming. Just when I need it, a very sweet lady runs right up close next to me and whispers, "Do you have a nagging feeling that you forgot something this morning?!" with a big wry smile on her face. I give her a rehearsed puzzled look which tickles her and admit, "Ya know...I have been feeling like I forgot something all morning! I just (I look around) can't put my finger on it." She winks and chuckles and hurries on. 3 steps ahead I call after her, "I got it! (she looks back) SUN GLASSES...I totally forgot my sunglasses!" She cracks up. Just then, Kevin gives me a slap on the shoulder.
Man, was I glad to see him! He says why don't we run this thing in together. I think we had about another 2.5 to go. At one point, we were headed slightly down hill and I looked up and then back only to realize, after 2+hrs, I was still in the middle of a sea of people! Just awesome!! 2 girls running stopped level with us. The one pointed out to the other with a camera, that I wasn't wearing shoes. She shook her head like she wasn't making any sense, till she saw my feet. They talked to us for a few, she snapped a pic of my feet and said, "THIS is going up on Facebook! You'll be famous by morning!" Kevin and I laughed. Then about mile 12 we hit that horrid rain groove stuff back where we started the race! By this time, my steps had been less than Ninja like for more than 2 miles, I was tired in that place that makes you want to run and I started to question the nature and sexual deviance of the person who planned this road surface speculating on how big their mansion in hell would be! With just the up-hill and the turn to the straight left, we see the Running Club "Daddy" Mark, who was sidelined by a medical proceedure, hooting and hallering at us about what bad-asses we were! The man's car is peppered with 26.2 and 13.1 stickers...who am I to argue?!! ;o) I walk 2 or 3 times on the 1/3 mile up hill and once on the straight after the bend. Keving puts his arm around me and gives me the game plan. He said something to the effect of, I've done a few of these and they always snap a bunch of shots at the finish, so let's walk till we're close and then get your posture in check, good form, head up and smiling so we don't look like hell at the end! ...and that's how we crossed the line! 2:30:53. We got our medals, our water, a cytomax and went to sit down. My feet were sore, but I didn't realize until I got home that I had a small blister on the 2nd and 3rd toes on my left foot. Weird! Today, they feel fine, except the muscles in the 2nd toe on my right foot are really sore.
As we were heading out to the unsecured area to meet the rest of our group, I could hear the elite women's and men's times. 1 hour 13min...WHAAAAT??? Men's winner and second place were both in the 63min range! WOW!!! After, Trisa went back to the room with me, sat on the floor while I washed my feet and then sat in a hot bath and I told her about Kevin spitting Gu, some of the funny comments I got, the lady who asked if I'd forgotten anything, etc. It's great to have a best friend to share stuff with!! Then I showered and we went up to Leann and Phoebe's room where Mark had ordered Champagne for the group and chocolate milk for me. We all shared stories of the run, Kevin got to tell all about how I made him spit Gu and how, when we were running together, every 5th runner would come by with a posative comment about my feet(he's prone to exagerate when he drinks! ;o). I told about the 2 amazing guys with a prosthetic foot I saw running and Will said he saw a couple other barefooters.
For my first...it went just the way it should have! Lot's of great moments, one hell of a challenge and really dirty feet...that's how I like it!
(3 washes later and some of San Antonio just couldn't bear to part with me! LOL!)
(My daughter, Hailey, modeling the medal!)
(My boy in his Zems and the medal. Future Barefooter!)
Next, Kevin, Trisa and I will be running/walking the White Rock Half, Dec 4th! I'm going to take take my phone and take pics at this one!! I'm so excited!!!
-Jonny
