Hottest Half-Marathon Race Report: That was rough.

The Hottest Half lived up to its name. The heat is brutal, and until you have tried to race in it, it is impossible to understand just how much it can slow you down. The humidity was also ridiculously high due to rain (gasp!) in Dallas the day before.

When I said in my pre-race post that I was hoping to run a 1:33-1:34 race on Sunday, I honestly thought I could handle that without a problem. I’m typically a 1:30-1:32 half marathoner, with a PR of 1:29:xx, so I thought giving myself a few minutes extra cushion in the heat would be perfectly reasonable. Uhhhh…not so much. I underestimated how tough it would be to run a half-marathon in August in Texas –especially when we are having one of the hottest summer in years. A 5k I could have still handled without losing too much speed, but not a half-marathon. I learned how much the heat and humidity can really take out of you mile upon mile.

Pre-race:

This was a solo trip to Dallas for me, as Dan had to work/watch the dogs. I arrived in Dallas around 3 pm and checked in my hotel. I stayed at the host hotel, the Hyatt Summerfield, out of convenience and because they were offering a good rate for half-marathoners. They ended up giving me a deluxe king suite for the race rate, which was awesome. It was like a freaking condo; living room, full kitchen, walk-in closet, dvd player, 2 flat screen tv’s etc. I wish I could have stayed for more than 1 night! I was also only a mile from North Park mall, where I did some shopping and scored a pair of Lululemon shorts for only $39!!! (Dan says this is not a bargain, but in my world it is). Grabbed some dinner from Whole Foods ($20 dinner for ONE. That pay-by-the-pound salad bar KILLS me every time), went back to my hotel, watched 2 movies on HBO, in bed by 9 pm.

Race Morning: Arrived at the race start about an hour early, got parked and hit the porta-potty’s (which by the way, they had plenty. Big pet peeve of mine is that races never seem to have enough bathrooms and the lines end up being super long). Ran into my friend Andrew from Georgetown, and his girlfriend! Also got to meet Royce from Daily Mile who was doing his first race ever on Sunday (by the way, he’s a trooper and one tough athlete for selecting the Hottest Half as his first race. I told him they definitely get easier than this one)! Warmed up for 20 minutes, and headed to the start line.

You know you are in for a hot day when you are sweating like crazy and the race hasn't even started yet.

Start time was 7:30 am. I’m a ‘run before the sun comes up kinda girl’. I’m usually done with my runs by 6:45 am-7:00 am. So, 7:30 am was a little late for my liking, but hey, I guess that’s why they call it the Hottest Half.

Race gun went off and I was off. My pace felt really good to start – I kept looking down and reminding myself to slow down because it would be a long race. The course was an out and back and I was running right at a 7 min flat pace for the first two miles. Had the nice surprise to see a friendly face, Nina!, around Mile 2 and it gave me a boost. I was running with two other guys who wanted to keep a 7 min pace, and their company was keeping me going. As miles 3, 4, 5 ticked by I noticed that our pace was slowing slightly, although I felt like my perceived effort was not. In fact, I felt like I was fighting harder to keep a slower pace. Frustrating. This was also about the time the sun decided to make its appearance very well known and the temperature went up. The sun was right on us... burning. 

At mile 5, our average pace had slowed to around 7:09, and we all three admitted that perhaps we had been too overzealous in our 7 min efforts given the conditions.One guy dropped back just after mile 5, and I lost my other running partner right before the turn around at Mile 6.55.

I was around a 7:09-7:10 pace at the turn around, but I putting in a lot of effort to hold that pace. I was pretty sure I would have to readjust my 1:34 goal, but I would try to hang on the next few miles. Saw Andrew again, as well as Brian from Daily Mile, just past the turn-around, and their encouragement was much appreciated. Around Mile 8, I also saw Lauren, and then Royce again from Daily Mile, and I was really excited to see them both, and again, really appreciated their encouragement. I came to this race expecting to see no one, and so the friendly faces made a world of difference.

At mile 9, I decided I needed to slow down. I was red lining. I noticed myself weaving a little, and I have having a weird out of body experience where I felt like I had no control over my legs. There was really no internal debate on this issue. Acceptance.

I also knew at this point (thank you kind spectators for letting me know) that I was the 5^th woman. I also knew that I wasn’t going to catch the fourth place woman. She was in my line of sight, but not close enough that I could safely make a kick to catch her. I also knew that there wasn’t another woman close behind me. Let’s just finish this thing, I told myself. I wasn’t getting passed by people, and was still passing some, so it appeared to me that everyone was struggling and just trying to make it to the finish line.

The last few miles were survival for me. I just wanted to safety make it to the finish line. I ended up crossing the finish line in 1:36:34. I measured the course long at 13.21, but that could have been due to weaving in and out of people on the race course (anyone else measure it long?). My finish was good enough for 36^th overall, 5^th woman and 1^st in my age group. I left with a nice plaque and finisher’s medal.

I do want to give a lot of props to the race organizers – this is the first time I’ve run a half in the Texas heat and no station was out of water. There were so many water stations – they all had water and powerade on the course. It was awesome. The volunteers were super nice and helpful! Around mile 10, I tried to grab water but missed the handoff (totally my fault) and the volunteer chased after me with a cup of water and powerade to make sure I had fluids. I thought the race was very well-organized, a good value for the price, and I will do it again next year (and start out more conservatively!).

Would I have liked to run faster? Yes, most definitely. Yet I am feeling quite at peace in accepting what I was given.

And that's pretty much a wrap for this race.  Stick a fork in it... it's D-O-N-E.