Kasha Runs Tybee and Kiwi Runs Stats

This past Saturday was the Critz Tybee Run Fest. Over Friday and Saturday, 5 events adding up to a full marathon. (5k, 10k, Half, 2.8, 1 mile.) I do the half. I've done the half 3 years now. My first season of running, Tybee only had a 5k and a half, so I did the 5k. That's back when I was doing them every weekend. So I suppose it was fitting that Tybee was the first event in our Month of Many Mini Marathons. (Kiwi made that up.)

Saturday morning was cold. C. O. L. D. Cold. I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't fall back asleep. Oh well, I needed an early start to get on island before they closed any streets. Up and going, we got to Starbucks at 5:45. It opens at 6. By 5:55, my barista handed me 2 drinks. A hot chocolate and a hot tea. I was gonna need both.

Onward to Tybee, the temperature was hovering around 32 degrees.

We parked in the same spot we always do. By the fence at Ocean Plaza, near the porta potties. I asked Kiwi to remind me in our next life to pick a sport/lifestyle without such intimate knowledge of pre-dawn, freezing temps, or porta potties. He shivered and went back to sleep. For the next 2 hours, we drank liquids and tried to sleep. Sleep never happened, but the time really flew. Around 8:10 it was time to go line up. I opened the car door and the alarm started blaring.

While I have no idea what I did, I do know that I'd already tied my key into my shoe. Which meant taking off my shoe, unlocking the door, and putting it back on. Kiwi whined that I woke him up and insisted that he was too cold to run. He said he would wait in the car. I told him I'd be gone for 3 hours and he mumbled, "good" and went back to sleep.

Start line temp: 32 degrees

Start line clothing: shoes, ankle socks, thin shorts, sports bra, long sleeve breathable shirt, gloves, ear warmers

Start line additional gear: hand held water bottle, 2 powerbar gels, sunglasses, Dopi (a music shuffle...spell ipod backward...)

Start line song: Crazy Train. They do this every year and I love it!

Start line cheering party: My sister Lily who just pr'ed in the 10K with a subhour finish, (also besting my 10k pr by a minute!) after working as a bartender the night before.

....we both skipped that whole lesson on "limits" in school...

Here we go!


Around the corner, down the long Butler Ave stretch. My legs felt thick, but I expected them to warm up quickly.

1 mile, 10:05.

Hmm.... slower than my pace felt. Keep going.

2 miles, 20:16.

What? Where is this coming from! Jacksonville's first few miles were closer to 9's. Why this pace now? On my home course, too!

I kept moving, slowing to a walk at mile 5 to eat gel. The gel helped, but I was still maintaining a 10+ mile.

Back down Butler into "part 2" and not flying, but holding steady. Here I saw Bandit. Bandit is married to Boston Runner from Jacksonville Race. Today Bandit was running to pace a friend aiming for a 1:30. When I saw him, he was alone, just enjoying himself. I yelled out and he turned around to run with me.

Having someone else pace you can be the best thing in the world. All the effort you put into holding a speed, keeping your shoulders out of your ears, breathing, etc; becomes simple when someone else tells you to do it. Because no brain power is going toward those things, you can just run. Bandit stayed with me for about a mile then wandered off to finish his run. About this time, Lily showed up again. I tossed her my gloves and she ran for about a quarter of a mile with me.

That got me to mile 10. 5k to go! I was at around the 1:45 mark, which is funny, because in Athens that meant a definite PR. Now it meant giving it everything I had just to break even. I wasn't sick or injured, but it wasn't a perfect race. I kept going, picking off runners as I moved, drinking water-gatorade-water at station 12 before heading toward the finish line. While I wasn't flying, no one passed me and I kept picking off the ones in front of me.

Finish Line!!! I ran with everything I had, head down, feeling my muscles ready to quit. ...you have about a 2 minute maximum sustainable effort period, I was betting on it to show up.

It did, for a 2:21:57 finish.

Overall personal record? Nope.

Course personal record? You bet! 2011 was a 2:33 and 2012 was a 2:37. (Still my slowest half ever.) I beat my Tybee best by 12 minutes! Win!

I gathered some snacks for Kiwi and headed for the car pretty quickly. It was still very cold and I was exhausted.

Back at the car, Kiwi was awake and happy about his breakfast bars. He knows they're one of those things I won't eat. I gave him my finish time and he started happily calculating stats.

I got into the car just in time for electrolyte imbalance to hit. Ouch! I drove back to Starbucks and requested salt with (not in) my tea. That calmed my muscles enough to go to the drugstore for pedialyte. And that helped with everything else. We drove home, took a shower, and crawled into bed. Over the next 24 hours, I slept for about 16.

1 down, 3 to go.