A "Wicked" Half Marathon Experience

We ran the Wicked Half Marathon in historic Salem, MA on Saturday. The timing was great because my running plan called for a 14 mile run and Chris's plan called for a 12 mile run.

We both wanted to run at least one "official" race before running the marathon in Dublin and this turned out to be a great event. Once again, we relied on my sister and her husband to watch our kids so we could run together. We made a fun time out of it and got hotel rooms Friday night just outside of Salem.

The race started at 7am on Saturday and we knew that the alarm would be going off around 5am to get ready and eat something at an hour before the start. It had been raining NONSTOP since Friday morning so we were relieved to see that the rain had paused on Saturday morning for the start of the race.

We got to the registration area and went through all of the rookie questions:
- Should we wear our fuel/water belts? (we didn't)
- Should we bring our iPods? (we didn't)
- Will they give us safety pins for our numbers? (they did)
- Should we wear our jackets because it's so cold now? (we didn't and we were glad)

Soon enough, we were huddled up at the starting line along with about 500 other people. We stood there for about 15 minutes before the gun and thoroughly enjoyed every second just people watching! (Chris is going to attempt to write some more about this aspect of racing later this week.)

Chris and I agreed that we were going to take it easy, both knowing that this was a warm up and not Dublin. We "talked strategy" together before the gun went off but - surprise - adrenaline kicked in 100 yards into the race and the strategy went out the window. We ran about 25 seconds/mile faster than our original plan. Even though it was faster than we originally planned, it was a comfortable run; although the last two miles started to wear me (not Chris) down.

That said, we both hit the gas just before mile marker 13 and sprinted through to the finish. Our time was just SECONDS over two hours and we are both happy with our performance.

Lessons Learned:
- I wish I wore my fuel/water belt (Chris was ok not wearing hers)
- We were okay not having our iPods
- Race-day/competitive adrenaline is a double-edged sword. It helped us finish with a great average pace, but that was for a half marathon. If we fall into the same trap in Dublin, we will run out of gas before the end of the race. We have to manage the run to a pace we are comfortable with, especially early on. Chris and I both want to finish Dublin strong - we don't want to walk across the finish line.
- Chris' note: The finish line was not well marked... well, it WAS but you had to KEEP RUNNING into the "corral" after crossing the big green line that said FINISH. Soooo... I actually (for once) beat Rich in our typical end-of-run sprint... but since I STOPPED at what was marked FINISH...and he kept going... he actually beat me in the standings. GRRRRR :)