Country Music Full/Half April 25th, 2009

[Sandy321]

Pop it if you have the feeling its going to pop anyway - rather than pop on its own and go everywhere - if on its location it may not pop - then leave it alone - but if you feel that suckers gonna blow - then you can pop it and control the flow!

and btw DH says to tell you that advil anti inflamatory - so it did in no way cause your swelling (he makes me take advil before a race - its all good!!)

 

[getnthinr]

Congrats, Allie! Can't wait for all the photos. I know it was incredibly hot out there -- Hope things went well for everyone, considering the conditions.

I switched to the bike -- a bit easier to handle in the heat.

 

[CarolA]

The heat was BRUTAL!

I didn't get to meet many WISH folks but I did cheer when I saw the shirts... so if saw a woman loudly scream go WISH without a WISH shirt that was me (I went with the COOLEST shirt in my drawer)

Since I used to live in Nashville I spent the weekend hanging out with friends there who I don't get to see often.

I think my time was worst yet about 2:42. About mile 11 I just said "who cares" and walked most of the way in. Wasn't worth it. My boyfriend who NEVER slows down starting walking some at mile 15 of the full which is earlier then I have ever heard him admit too.... His time was also one of the slowest for him (even slower then his Marine Corp where he busted his ankle on mile 7!)


The start was well organized, but I did NOT like the waves. I was in corrall 22. Did not cross the start line until about 40 minutes after the 7 AM start. Which meant the heat was already creeping up. And actually I could have started ANYWHERE, they was no real "enforcement" of the corrals. Folks with 30 numbers were in our corral just becasue their friends were LOL!


The water stops were completely overwhelmed. I hope they managed to keep them going!

My boyfriend did the full... got heckled by women in the projects. (WHO thought sending runners through the projects would present Nashville in a good light? ) He said the second half was pretty lonely with no one but the bands on the road.

Don't know if I will try this one again... hill and heat.. Not my idea of fun!

Half season is over for me. Doing the Peachtree 10K in July and then will start over next season!

 

[FireDancer]

The heat was just brutal. I went back and checked the official registered temperatures and they don't sound as bad as they seemed. I think it was the combination of the cloudless sky and the fact that many of us were training in 50 degree weather instead of 70 or 80.

Here are the temps:

7: 67
8: 70
9: 73
10: 77

I got to about 8 and just had to slow up. My legs felt great but I just couldn't stay cool. I am thinking next year the start will be moved up to 6 just in case it is so hot again. According to the Nashville paper one person died after crossing the finish line and over 40 were taken to the hospital.

It was nice meeting everyone and putting faces to names (or board names).

Anyone who wants to see themselves cross the finish line go here.

 

[FireDancer]

Since I can't think of a better place to put it I will do a mini trip report here. I'm lucky enough to have a friend from high school that runs and likes to travel to races. We sat down in December and looked for a couple of races to do and settled on the Country Music Half (well, he did the full), the Rock and Roll half in VA Beach, and the Niagara International Full (my first full).

We both worked our normal day on Thursday and then met up for the trip down. We decided to stop for the night in Walton, KY because driving the whole way through after working 8 hours was a disaster in the making. We figured that staying south of Florence, Cincy, and the airport would mean we avoided the rush hour traffic in the morning figuring it would be going in the opposite direction.

We stopped in Columbus and had dinner at the Happy Greek in the short north area (just south of the OSU campus) and got to the hotel without incident. We stayed at the EconoLodge and it was a bit of a dive. Neither of us are really hotel snobs and it was just for one night so we sucked it up, showered, and went to bed.

The next morning we left about 6:15am to continue the drive down and got to the Millennium Maxwell House in Nashville before noon (we got a free hour since we went from EDT to CDT). We changed in the hotel into shorts because it was a lot warmer than we thought it would be and headed downtown.

We went into the expo and got our shirts and goody bags and spent about an hour wandering the floor and getting all the freebees. i also bought a 26.2 sticker for the car that I won't put on until crossing the finish line in Niagara. We decided to have a little lunch since it was going to be a while before dinner with the WISH group. We went to a little bar/restaurant on Broadway and had sandwiches and then decided to wander around downtown a little bit. It made no sense to go back to the hotel just to turn around and come back downtown. After our nomadic wander around downtown we still had about an hour to kill before dinner so we went to a pool bar right next to the restaurant. It was free pool but they wanted us to order drinks. Neither of us were drinking so we got a couple of juices and left a pretty good tip since we figured that is all the bartender really cared about and spent an hour embarassing ourselves on the tables.

We walked over to the Spaghetti factory and luckily someone (I'm pretty sure it was Karen) had on a WISH backpack so we stood around talking for a little while. The SF didn't want us to put our names in until our whole party arrived so we all got to know eachother for about a half hour before our party was called. The dinner was very nice and despite our large group I don't think anything was missed. A salad was delivered with the wrong dressing but I don't remember anyone not getting their food or anything like that.

After dinner it was back to the hotel to get some sleep and set the alarm for 4:15am. I made sure I had all my stuff for the following day and slept great. The alarm went off at 4:15 and despite the early hour the adrenaline had me awake in seconds. We got down to the free shuttle our hotel provided to the start and arrived a little before 5:00am. While it wasn't hot by any means it was warm enough that we knew it would be unpleasant once the race started. After some stretching and close inspection of multiple trees (blame the hydrating and nerves) we got into our corrals and waited for the start. The director made multiple announcements about the heat which I took as a "please don't die and sue us" warning. This would turn prophetic as you will find out.

The gun started and we started the nice downhill part of the race which lasted 2 miles. I was feeling great and even after the 3rd mile, which was pretty steeply uphill, I was still on pace to finally break 90 minutes. The course was changed and made a bit harder for 2009 and the third mile was the main addition.

We ran down music row which was shaded and turned into a neighborhood of rolling hills at mile 6. At this time the sun was up and it was getting hot. Well, to be honest it wasn't what would normally be considered hot but in comparison to the weather we have had this year and the lack of training in anything resembling heat it just seemed brutal. It was just before exiting the neighborhood at about mile 6.75 that I knew the 90 would have to wait. I was still slightly ahead of my goal pace but I was starting to feel like I just couldn't stay cool. Just after exiting the neighborhood and crossing the 7 mile mark the 90:00 pace group started to run into the distance. It wasn't very quick but I just knew they would get away shortly and by mile 8 they were pretty far gone. My legs still felt great but I just couldn't stay warm.

The water stops were very well stocked and very long and they even added a couple of stops that weren't scheduled. Of course I was still close to the front so I can't speak for how long they stayed this way. I really started to feel slow right around the split with the full marathoners at about 11.5. I could feel my stride shorten and my concentration on form start to fade. I don't usually concentrate on the finish until the end but I was already starting to just want to cross the line. We re-entered the city and had some zigzagging through downtown to do before crossing the river and by far this half mile was just the worse. It wasn't the hilliest but all the concrete just made it feel even warmer than normal. I got over the river and to the stadium and had a little left to have what felt like a sprint to the finish. Watching my finish video on the CM Marathon site I realized that it was far from a sprint and my stride was about half of what it should have been. My chip time ended up being 1:33:54. Not the kind of time I was looking for but the combination of the hills and the heat conspired to slow me down just under 3 minutes.

I had a while to wait because my friend was running the full and the rest of the WISHers were starting later in higher corrals so I wandered around and got a little minor sunburn. I took my time in the finisher area and got plenty of water and snacks. I had so much water at the end I felt like I would give birth to a water-baby.

After seeing some of the WISHers again we headed back to the hotel to shower and nap before the DMB concert at Vanderbilt stadium.

The first band got on stage at 6 but we decided to sleep a little and head out for some food before the show. Since nothing says Nashville and food like sushi we went to a place downtown named Göten and had a very good and reasonably priced Japanese dinner. We headed to the show at Vanderbilt stadium and got in just as Jason Mraz was finishing his set. We ran into a girl Troy and I went to High School with and got ot our seats about 15 minutes before the lights dimmed and we were treated to a Bartender opener with the If I Only Had a Brain improv from Coffin. The set list was great and they played for about 2:45. We got the three new songs off of the album that they have been playing (We listened to 3 of the previous tour shows on the way down) and got the best Encore I've seen in a while...a Blue Water Baboon Farm tease then Watchtower.

We got out of there and wandered around Vanderbilt for a while before heading back to get some sleep before the 9 hour drive the next day.

The drive home was nice and being Sunday had no traffic. The very accurate thermometer in my car read 92 when we stopped for gas just north of Louisville...man it was hot!

The End

 

[mkymsehi]

Great report Frank.

You knocked on the door for your 90 minute goal. The combination of heat and hills kept you from achieving it. I'm sure you'll get it next time out, especially on a flat or downhill course!

 

[FireDancer]

FYI: You can view a video of you crossing the finish line here and the pictures are up on the ASI site.

 

[aldisneygrl]

Ha Frank, I was coming to tell everyone about the pics.

I have found Chester, myself, and I think Lisa (princessrunner) in the Lost and Found.

 

[jeanneg]

FYI: You can view a video of you crossing the finish line here and the pictures are up on the ASI site.

Thanks, Frank! That was my first time getting a video finish!