Livestrong Austin Half Marathon 2011

A review of my first half marathon.
After driving into town for the race with my toddler and preschooler (who had the stomach flu all over my back seat and couldn't be left at home with dad, who was also suffering through the stomach flu,) I have never been more relieved to arrive at the inlaws.
They were kind enough to keep the (sick as a dog) children for me while I stayed downtown with friends for the actual race.  My first mission after assuring myself for the millionth time that I had in fact packed all of my race day essentials was to hit up the race expo...and wow!

This was HUGE!  I've done a few little local road races but the sheer magnitude of this was far larger than anything I'd experienced.  It was hard not to get sidetracked by the goodie bag and the booths and the freebies everywhere!

Swag-tastic!

Until I got out to my car...and drove off leaving my driver's liscence at the expo >_<
Another two hours of traffic around the expo, and I was finally visiting with my college roommate and her DH, all around fun people we all ate dinner (Greek Portabello at the Kerby Lane Cafe) and went to bed early after watching Willow, no big fuss there.

Woke up super early, got dressed, ate breakfast, decided that I'd rather be cold now than hot later and opted for a running tank and skirt rather than my longer (warmer) options and drove right over to the race site and got great parking!  Another perk of riding with friends?   Jase parallel parked pre-dawn, not me.  Anyhow, we got out stretched our legs wandering over to the starting line and then around the capital building for a bit before settling into the line up for the porta potties.  Which took a long time, but we were there early enough that the 20,000 people ahead of us in line didn't make us miss the start.
We wandered around a bit looking for our time group (divide by two for the half, no we don't need to line up with the 2:30 expected finishers, they would kill us!)
And after a bit of time killing we were in the right spot.
In time for the starting gun...

and slowly shuffling forward for twenty minutes to get through the starting gates.
Ah, the life of the 12:00/mile runner.
I ran the first three miles up and around downtown and down to the river, all the way getting a guided tour of Austin from Ellen and Jason.  Then came the long hill, which I had trained for weeks in anticipation of this death hill.

not me...I'm way off in the back

So it really wasn't so bad going uphill for three miles, when you're expecting it!  We actually ran without Jason for a while, but incredibly caught up to us right before the next water stop at the top of South 1st.  The downhill was rougher, as I wasn't really trained for it, per se, but at least it was faster.  One of my favorite spectators was a very encouraging lady when we were crossing the bridge toward 2nd.  She was so kind and sincere and her soul just shone in her face as she yelled life to the passing runners.
When we crossed back into Austin, I started noticing that the slanted road racing was pulling a number on the tendons in my knees, just enough to be noticeable by mile eight.  I tried to stay on the opposite slant of the road for the rest of the race, which may have not been the way to go, but live and learn.
We pushed on through another couple water stops, including the Livestrong mile, which was fun because the road was all chalked with inspirational phrases "I think I can, I think I can"  "Run Forrest, Run" etc...
After the cross over Mopac and the mile 11 water stop and some not insignificant hills, we reached a little something that looked like this:

Okay, actually it was only this:

Which translates into a climb equivalent to an eight story building in a quarter mile...so really pretty much only the same thing.  There was a guy at the top heckling us...which if we'd had more energy, someone would've hit him...seriously, who heckles at a marathon? 
We made it into town with me having to take a couple of very disheartening walk breaks (one on that hill after 11, and two on the hills in the last mile on San Jacinto)  but we made it through our first half!  (And, incidentally, Ellen's first road race.)

After a lot of waiting to get our t-shirts (the tents were swamped) and bananas and the worst tasting Gatorade ever (how does G03 taste so horrible, gritty and nauseating when G02 is so yummy?)  We walked back to the car, stretched and went back to the Perkey's to shower. 
After lunch, I drove back out to my inlaws and, in my favorite race moment, Kylee and Grandma were waiting out front for me with their own support signs.

Run, Mommy, Run!

My take aways mostly involve that I can do this!  Next time, I need to remember my pacing in the beginning, study the course map better, check in on my body more often, and remember not to over stretch afterwards.   Apparently the weather was horrible and warm and humid.  Being from Houston, I'd thought it was nice being all over cast with a breeze...suppose there are some advantages to training in a swamp!