While I don't do many half marathons, this is definitely one I like putting on my rotation, especially as a pacer. It is reasonably local (only about 90 minutes to Fredericksburg) and is a helluva grand challenge to make sure to get it right and help the runners in the group.
I got down on Saturday a bit earlier than expected so got some lunch and then made my way over to the expo, picked up my bib and shirt, donned the remainder of my costume, and made my way around to the Elevated Running and Pacing booth. The reaction that I got from everyone as I turned the corner was priceless.
The expo is very tiny and there appeared to be barely any foot traffic the entire time. Every now and then a few people would come over to us and ask the standard questions about what are pacers, what are respective strategies are, specifics about the course, etc. A decent number of the people I was talking with asked whether I would be running the race in the costume. Alas, no -- it was going to be way too hot to do that and take the chance I didn't make the time. It's one thing for me to chance that personally, but not as a pacer.
The MCM mascot - Miles - even came over to me a couple times to get a photo.
Unfortunately, their George Washington wasn't present -- I was really hoping to get a photo with him. And, surprisingly enough, there was actually another runner who was dressed up in what looked like an authentic Colonial outfit who quickly proceeded past -- there was no realistic catching him for a photo.
After about 4 hours, I finally left -- went to check in at the hotel, and eventually made my way to what has become my standard pre-race restaurant: Basilico (which is directly on the course, near Mile 12).
Sunday morning finally arrived and I get out the door a bit earlier than planned -- always a good thing with the possibly tricky parking situation. It worked out beautifully, getting an end space right in front of Walmart -- nice and easy to find afterwards. Strangely enough, without having given any advance notice of the new procedure, there was a Marine posted at the corner where everyone standardly walks up the road toward the start line diverting people a couple of blocks in the other direction towards a security checkpoint they set up. (They have not had this set-up in the last 3 years.) OK, fine. Simple enough, few runners were there, and very few had drop bags anyway, so it's just a simple walk-through.
About 30 minutes ahead of the race, the pacers gathered for our usual group photo.
We also took a couple of videos for a jump photo. Apparently we were actually well coordinated for it. Granted, a couple of us grumbled about our knees after the landing. ;-) Hopefully we can grab a mostly non-blurry image for a photo.
Slowly but surely, after we lined up spaced out in order the runners self-seeded. Some made their presence known as being part of our respective pace groups, others were just planning on being near a pacer but not "actively" a member of the group. To each their own. I had a really great group of runners.
These two ladies, who I was talking with at the expo for a while, trying to help them hone in on just what they meant by "sub-2-hour" goal (was it "just" 1 second under, or was it closer to 5 minutes under), decided they were going to give a shot at 1:55. While they were happy to have the photographer take our photo pre-race in the corral, they quickly rethought whether it was a wise call, since it indelibly pegs their goal. I didn't get their bib numbers and can't make them both out across the different photos we're in on the course. One of them didn't make the sub-2 goal, and I don't know about the other one. While they stayed with me for a decent amount of time, I think Hospital Hill was the biggest culprit.
Somewhere around Mile 1, once the initial crush had spread out and we were clearly a coalesced group I asked people in the group to give me an "Oorah!" and it sounded like I had a good couple of dozen people. Great!
Relatively early in the race (Mile 4-ish?) there was a local store (Paul's Bakery) that had a tent set up on the side and a large flag where I could see in advance they had donuts. Heck, yeah! I made it clear to my group that I was going to get one (kinda hoping that at least one or two would feel comfortable enough to follow suit) and I drifted over to the side, stopping briefly to pick up one of the donut holes (cinnamon sugar). Mmm... delicious. And not even another mile or so later, we made a turn at another donut shop that foolishly didn't set up anything on the side. They totally missed out. (And so did we, because the exhaust being piped out from their shop smelled WONDERFUL.)
And somewhere inside downtown Fredericksburg, there was a table with a display of cupcakes. I had no concept that it was there! I didn't know until after the race was done and I was looking at one of the MCM feeds of videos from the day. Darn! I would've gladly swung over for one.
Thankfully, the pacing strategy was spot-on the whole time. We gained a lot of time on the early downhills, gave back only a small amount of it on the early uphills, and had plenty of time available to give back on the evil Hospital Hill. It always surprises me that it starts so far into Mile 10 that it does -- about 10.7 -- half a mile later than I thought. Enough so that the times that I expected for Mile 10 and Mile 11 were actually flipped -- with Mile 11 being the slower mile.
Finally, we crested the top of the last part of Hospital Hill (right over I-95). I told everyone that they needed to finish in front of me -- they were allowed to have a finishing kick (where I was just a moving clock at that point -- one of my fellow pacers' lines) and that I expected to see everyone running as hard as they could over the line.
We made the last turn, and less than a half mile later, we were at the finish. I actually managed to get some good air in the jump that I did as I crossed the finish line.
One of our Team Leaders Emmy got a bit of video... just after the jump (which the photographer didn't capture, either, despite having gotten plenty of air).
The announcer was very complimentary about how spot-on I was for my timing -- always nice to have that.
After getting my (minimalistic) post-race "goody" bag -- one of the worst ones I've ever gotten: 2 bottles of water, an electolyte tablet (which had to be broken in half, difficultly, to be able to get into one of the bottles), a banana, fruity "granola" bar, and "veggie sticks". I'm glad I thought to bring down a Muscle Milk and had it in the hotel fridge for when I got back.
Given that it's a 6am start, it's a nice early finish -- no worry about spending some extra time to cheer on the finishers for a bit before heading back to the hotel to shower and change.
Somehow the traffic returning back north of 95 was flowing -- it took me less than an hour to get to the Original Pancake House, which has become my traditional post-race brunch after this one race. Why not my usual cheeseburger? For one thing, I tend to wait until I have a decently longer distance done before I do that sort of lunch. Given what I get at OPH, there's not a huge amount of consistent logic, I must admit. Because what do I get at OPH?
Amazingly enough, there was zero wait to get the table. (Highly unusual for a Sunday morning, especially one that had such great weather as we were having.) This apple pancake is just heavenly. And, yes, I paced myself well enough to finish this in the one sitting.
And they have t-shirts available for sale. While I didn't purchase any, there were definitely a couple of them that were totally apropos for the moment.
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