Still Hollow Half-Marathon, Chattanooga, Tennessee

Well.

Steeper and more slippery than it looks, somewhere in mile 3.

I wasn't last, so it's cool that I maintained the whole "in-the-middle" angle by about 28 people. I haven't posted yet about this race mostly because school has started back up and it's been busy-busy the last week or so. On top of that, I really wasn't all that motivated to share my 3:05 time. You read that right, 3:05.

At first, I found it quite shocking that I took that long. But then in retrospect, considering all the "variables", it wasn't as much of a train wreck as I thought. Mostly it was being busy (and oh-so-tired). I had gone scalloping for the first time the Wednesday before the race, so I'm not really sure how much energy was used for that. Or, how many muscles I summoned that hadn't been called upon for years. It was August. Mileage and overall training was low throughout the previous two months, for sure. I went back to work the Thursday before the race. That meant resetting the body to the working schedule. A few things were there to maybe tip the scales to the slow side, but nothing was really unknown.

So, I worked a full day that Friday, leaving directly from school for the airport. I arrived at the airport with just under an hour until the flight left. I made it through security with only a small delay while they checked my toiletries bag. The plane was loaded and left on time by 4:50. I flew to Atlanta, arriving about 6:10 which was earlier than expected. By the time I got off the plane and traveled (like a 10k) to get my rental car, it was just after 7:00. I now had a 2-hour drive from Atlanta to Chattanooga. I called ahead to the hotel to let them know I would be arriving late. I made one stop for the restroom and a snack, and arrived at the hotel about 9:20. After checking in, I drove just 5 minutes or so to a nearby Chili's for dinner. After that, to the Wal-Mart for some breakfast foods. My face hit the pillow at 10:30. Saturday morning began at 5:30, got dressed, slammed some Diet Coke, mini-muffins and microwaved bacon, and drove about 15 minutes to the Enterprise South Nature Park for the race.

The race was more difficult with regards to terrain than I expected, which is probably what accounted for my slower time the most. Quite a bit of it was on mountain-bike trails, which from what I have come to learn can vary in their difficulty quite a bit, just like any other walking or running trail. The second half of the race had the most challenge for me. The best way to describe the trails during those miles would be to say they were like moguls in snow-skiing, but the moguls went up for awhile, then down for awhile, then up, then down. This would not be a skill that this Florida girl practices all that often. I'll now be adding something like it to my training, thank you. Many of those short inclines and declines were quite steep. The few pictures I took don't represent the elevations well at all (or maybe it's because I only took out my phone when it was flat!). A good portion of the trails were rock and gravel. This required those of us who come up short in the coordination department (uh, me) to really focus so as to not twist an ankle or get a mouthful of dirt as a reward for falling on your face.

For the most part, the trail was marked for the race. There were a few places where I really wasn't sure, though, and had to rely on other cues to keep me from getting lost. For example, these pine needles right here look just a little flatter than those pine needles right there. The course was beautiful in places, but overall very redundant. That didn't help when I was looking for motivation. Everything kind of just looked the same: pine forest, dirt, rocks, more pine forest, more dirt, more rocks, even more pine forest... Sometimes in races, distractions are needed. The course had lots of twists and turns. Since there were only 135 people in the half, there were many times when I was alone. The quiet stillness of the woods can be a great thing, until you are tired, hungry and aren't 100% sure you know exactly where you are going. I took the liberty of walking whenever I felt like it, too. I probably should have taken more pictures but I already felt so behind by the halfway point, it just didn't cross mind. I knew going into this race that I wasn't going to be at the top of my game. Pushing it wasn't going to be of any benefit considering I had travel ahead of me and a busy workweek to follow.

At mile 11, it was time to fill the silence. I pulled out my phone and played some music out loud. I don't usually carry my headphones on trail runs. I'm sure the squirrels were entertained. I finally, with emphasis on finally, finished the race, but unfortunately the organizers had misplaced a box of medals. So I didn't get one that day. They say it will be in the mail later on. I spent just a few minutes getting some water. I stretched a little, then was back in the car towards the hotel for a quick shower before heading back out on the road to Atlanta.

A downhill portion during the first 6 miles.

Traffic was a beast as I got into the city on I-75, and my two-hour ride became three. Fortunately I had left Chattanooga right away, so I was on time for my flight back home.

I have come to grips with the sight of a 3-hour finish time. It almost unnerves me a little, worrying that the next race will come out that way too. I'm just going to tell myself that somehow I gained some fitness by completing a race that was physically challenging for me at that moment. We'll just pretend it was a weekend of cross-training.

As of today, I'm behind on my marathon training by a few days, so I will need to readjust going forward. More than anything, you have to get your head back in the game after a speedbump like that and get to focus. Plan, do the hard work, and you will find success. Onward, we go.