So about a week ago I saw
that Walter Brown was organizing the pace groups for the Halloween Half, I just
commented that it sounded fun, he responded back and told me there was a 1:40
spot available if I was interested. I
was very excited about it, it’s been a life long dream of mine to be a pacer in
a race. Well maybe not a life long dream
but once I thought it would be pretty cool to be able to run fast enough that
one day someone would ask me to run slower.
My wife was pretty adamant I
not run this race so when the opportunity came up to run it for free I couldn’t
pass it up, not that it changed her decision but I did it anyway.
I called Walter one night and
asked if he thought it would be better to pace it at a flat 7:38/mile pace or
run it course appropriate, since the first 5 miles are so steep. I thought it was a fair question to ask and
before I knew it I was in charge of setting up the pacing chart for all of the
pacers. Lucky for me I had just spent
oodles of time making up race pace templates for the St George marathon and had
some experience in the subject. I came
up with what I thought was a pretty good formula for the course, plugged in the
times from 1:30 – 3:00 pace and they all seemed to be pretty reasonable. That was the easier part, he then asked if I
knew where to get wrist bands, I told him I’d figure that out as well. I found a local place that sold waterproof,
tear resistant paper (not easy) and found some great double sided sticky tape
(too great according to Allie) had my kids wear them for 2 days straight and
taking baths with them to make sure they could handle the harsh conditions of a
½ marathon.
I’m not going to get into all
the craziness and drama of the actual race politics, and packet pickup. I’m sure you will hear about all that in
other peoples reports.
Slept in the basement last
night so my wife wouldn’t keep me awake, and vis-versa, woke up at 4:00am,
drove to the finish line, instead of the University Mall where the bus pickup
was and parked there. I jogged the 2.5
miles to the Mall, it was quite pleasant to get a nice cool run in. Got on the second to first bus and went for a
really long bus ride to the start line.
Again I wont go into details but the bus ended up going all the way to
the top of the Alpine loop to turn around so we were on the bus for 2
hours. Actually quite nice, sitting on a
nice warm tour bus instead of a cold stuffy tent.
Race started pretty on time,
about 9:10. I figured it would much
later with the bus issues, I lined up with my other 1:40 pacers, forgot the
full names, sorry, Andy and someone rallied our troops and off we went. Pretty congested at the start, I thought
hitting mile 1 on pace would be hard, but we ended up pretty good. I warned everyone that I was going to tell a
Halloween Joke every mile so they could decide if they wanted to run with me or
not.
First number is my actual split,
second is what my pace calculator said to do it in.
Mile 1= 7:19
7:21
Why don't monsters eat
clowns?
Because they taste funny.
Mile 2= 7:11
7:20
What happens when a ghost
gets lost in the fog?
He is mist.
Mile 3= 6:57
7:09
What kind of street does a
ghost like to run on?
A dead end.
Mile 4= 7:10 7:06
Why didn't the skeleton go to
the halloween party?
Because he had no body to go
with.
Mile 5= 7:29 7:25
Who does a ghost fall in love
with?
His ghoul friend.
Mile 6= 7:56 8:01
Who are some of the
werewolves cousins?
The whatwolves and the
whenwolves.
Mile 7= 7:57
8:08
How does a witch tell time?
She looks at her witch watch.
Mile 8= 7:51
7:51
Where can you see a real ugly
monster?
In the mirror.
Mile 9= 7:35
7:36
What do they teach in
witching school?
Spelling.
Mile 10= 7:41
7:52
How do mummies hide?
They wear masking tape.
Mile 11= 7:50
7:45
What is in a ghost's nose?
Boogers
Mile 12= 7:55
7:50
Why did the ghost go into the
bar?
For the Boos.
Mile 13= 8:41 7:48
What did Dracula say after
hearing all these jokes?
They suck!
Mile 13.1= :57 :47
Total 1:40:21
At mile 12 we realized we
were about 1 minute off pace, we told
everyone still in our group to sprint ahead and go for it, we then slowed we
down and tried to motivate people behind us to hurry up and beat us and they
could still beat 1:40. When I hit the 13 mile mark my watch already said 1:40, I couldn't figure out how that happened and sped up to try and get in within the 1:40 mark. (Markers were a bit off the whole way but no big deal)
This was truly one of the
best running experiences I have ever had, I think I learned a lot about me, and
just running in general. It was very
interesting to run a race course correctly.
I will totally do this again someday if I get the chance. Thanks Walter for the opportunity, I made
some great new friends today.
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