Seems hard to believe it’s been a week since I did the Country Music Half-Marathon…but I’m counting down the weeks to the next one…51 to be exact!  LOL…as Dottie at “Dottie’s Weight Loss Zone” says in her email newsletters, take a seat in your comfy chair and grab your cold glass of water…this is going to be a LONG one!

As far as preparation, I felt much better prepared physically for my 2nd half marathon than my 1st that I did last November.  Through my training, I had gotten in 2 run/walks of 12 miles, and 1 of the full 13.1 miles.  I pulled a groin muscle before my 1st half, so that hindered some of my preparation in those few final weeks before the Route 66 Half Marathon.  Just life in general, though, and circumstances, had me nervous in the week leading up to the Country Music Half!  First, I started having sinus troubles starting to flair up 3 days before…I did not need THAT!  So I started living off of Dayquil/Nyquil caps! The weather also was worrisome…the Country Music Half Marathon Homepage states “58 degrees at the start/65 degrees at the finish”…which I guess has been the average for the 9 preceding years this race had been in existence!  Even before I left Memphis…almost 200 miles to the west of Nashville…weather forecasters were predicting almost record heat for the race weekend.  Nashville sits farther north in the middle of the state, and often is cooler than Memphis, but no such good fortune this time!  It was predicted to be just as hot as Memphis!

Still, I had been so looking forward to this, and nothing was going to deter me!  My sister Leslie and I left out around 8:45am Friday morning for the 3 hour drive to Nashville.  As promised…it was a very warm day!  We arrived in Nashville around noon, and our first stop was to pick up my race packet and the Expo at the Nashville Convention Center.  For my 1st half marathon in Tulsa, we only had opportunity to rush in and pick up our race packets and rush out, so I was excited to get to this one early enough to browse around a bit.  Packet pickup was a breeze.  I did ask one of the volunteers confirming my registration what I needed to do to change my expected race time from 3:15 to 3:30…she said “Oh, honey…not a thing…you stay right where you are…we’re the FUN group and we’ll take care of ya’!”  LOL…one less line to stand in!  This was the first race of any kind, including my first half marathon, that I had received anything other than the standard cotton race shirt.  This one was a Sugoi technical wicking shirt in red, with the race info/emblem emblazoned across the top of the front of the shirt…NICE!  I walked around the expo, having one place I for sure knew I wanted to visit…the "One More Mile" booth with all it’s race slogan T-shirts and accessories.  I picked up a wicking T-shirt that said “I know, I know…I’m almost there”, and a tank that said “13.1-Been there, Run that”  I also picked up a pair of sterling silver wire earrings with the “13.1” engraved in the charm on each one.

I spent about 1 ½ - 2 hours in the expo…I heard them announce that Dane and Blaine from the current season of “Biggest Loser” were there at one of the booths, but I couldn’t find it! After Dane’s exit from the show, his “update” segment showed him having finished a marathon. It came to light that the BL production team picked him and his wife up 3 miles out from the finish to get them to the finish line before the course closed for their filming purposes, and a lot of marathoners made a big stink about it.  Dane did go back and finished the miles he skipped, but in order for there to be no question of the legitimacy of him finishing a marathon, he made the Country Music Marathon his “Race for Redemption”.  I really would have loved to have found the booth and seen them and got my picture taken with them, because no matter how far he had run in that first marathon, he and his cousin Blaine were an inspiration to me! Here is the link to some of Dane's Race picture, along with Blaine's race pictures.

I definitely stimulated the economy before I left the expo…besides my “One More Mile” purchases, I bought a CMM Marathon/Half-Marathon “Finisher” long sleeve technical shirt, and a short sleeve “10 yr. anniversary” CMM technical shirt. One of the best purchases I made was probably the cheapest…there was a booth for Drymax socks, and they were demonstrating their socks in their booth.  They soaked the sock in a container of water, then blotted the outside of the sock on a paper towel…wet as expected.  They turned the sock inside out, though, and blotted, and it DID NOT leave a wet spot on the paper towel!  The socks were 3 pair/$20 or 1/$10, so after seeing the demonstration, I thought they couldn’t hurt to try, so I bought the 3 pairs.  I also purchased my shuttle pass for race morning on the way out.

By this time it was 2:30, so my sister and I headed to the Opry Mills shopping area to a restaurant she had been recommended….the Rainforest Café…very unique restaurant, and good food if you are ever in the Nashville area…I believe there are a few others around the country. It looks like a restaurant geared towards kids, and kids will love it, but it is very beautiful and different inside with it's feeling of sitting in a rainforest, so we adults liked it too!   After eating, we shopped a little, and then headed to check into our hotel around 5pm. We stayed at the Embassy Suites close to the airport, and on Saturday morning, I would catch a shuttle from one of the hotels a couple of miles away.  Knowing there would be crowds in almost every restaurant, especially with 30,000+ extra people in town for the race plus a lot of their families, and HOPING to get in bed early, we opted to go the fast food route.  I’m not a pasta person, so probably wouldn’t normally do the pasta the night before anyway, so we grabbed Back Yard Burger and took it back to the hotel.  I got the Jr. Back Yard Burger with a LARGE Seasoned Fry…LOL..that was my carbo load! I then started laying out all my “stuff” for Saturday morning to have it all ready when I woke up, right down to my makeup! 

About 9-9:30 I hopped into bed, and probably should have never turned on my computer!  Besides catching up on emails, I had a Facebook message from a friend…frantic that both she and her husband were not both accounted for in our class reunion “paid” list, so did some emailing back and forth with the person responsible for that to get it straightened out.  By the time I finished, it was almost 11pm, and I HAD TO get some sleep…not that that would be hard…or so I thought!  I fell right to sleep.  Then…at about 12:30am…I bolted awake.  I didn’t remember seeing the sticker on my race bib that the girl at the expo said she stuck on for my shuttle pass!  So I jumped out of bed and went to check.  There was a sticker there with “CMM” on it, so I hoped that was what was going to get me on my shuttle to the race!  I got back in bed.  The self-doubt started.  I bought the “Finisher” shirt…but what if I didn’t finish?  That would be money wasted on a shirt I could never wear!  I started worrying about how hot it was going to be.  What if with the hot weather, my blisters did me in?   LOL…I don’t have to tell you that my mind was racing, and I never fell back asleep, so I finally got out of bed to start getting ready around 3:45am, having had 1 ½ hour of sleep!  I choked down my cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese, but felt almost like I was going to “lose” that!  I really began wondering if maybe I just shouldn’t go!

Once my sister dropped me at the shuttle site at 5:15am, though, and I found the sticker on my bib WAS my shuttle pass, I settled onto the comfy bus, and relaxed…finally feeling like I could go to sleep! A girl sat in the seat next to me from WA state that was doing the full marathon, so we talked on the way to the start line, and that helped keep me awake. We got to the race site, and I figured I better make one last pit stop before the race.  Got in one line of “permanent” standing restrooms, and a girl finally came out and said 10 of the stalls were not working, so headed for the bank of 20+ porta-potties. I stood…and I stood…in line!  How long does it take to pee?!?  At 6:55, I figured as hot as it was going to be, I would sweat off whatever fluid was in me, so I headed to find my corral in the sea of 30,000+ race participants!  There were people as far as the eye could see!

The race started at 7am sharp, but each corral was not released for 2-3 minutes after the previous.  As we had passed a bank temp sign walking towards the start line, it read 75 degrees…at just a few minutes before 8!  My corral finally started at 8:01am! 

Knowing how hot it was going to be, and how sleep deprived I was, I had come to terms that I would be happy to finish in the same time that I finished my 1st half marathon…or just to finish, for that matter!  I started out at a jog…and before I knew it, 1 mile was completed.  I completed the 1st mile in 13:40, 2nd in 14:24, 3rd in 15:31…then settled into somewhere between 15:30-16:30 pace for the rest of the race between running and walking, with just 1 mile climbing over an average 17:00 pace through the whole 13.1…with the conditions as hot as they were…I was happy with that!  I had heard how hilly the course was supposed to be, but the hills seemed to be the long, gradual inclines that have long, gradual declines that are GREAT to run down!  I walked up the upside of the hills as quickly as I could, trying to keep my stride short(thanks for that tip from last Nov., Andrea!),  and then ran on the gradual downhills and as far as I could on the flat parts of the course. 

Course support was out of this world!  Not only the spectator support, but water/Cytomax stops at every mile, and sometimes more than 1 time in a mile. I got into a routine of drinking a glass of Cytomax, a glass of water, and then another glass of water to take a couple of sips, then to pour over my back! Water sprays every mile or so, and residents that added their additional sprinklers/hose spray!  There were also orange/apple quarters, and I took advantage of those every time they came up, even though I had my Clif Shot blocks, and GU.  Someone towards the end of the course was even standing with a big tray and was passing out their homemade pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips…had never had that combination, but it was GOOD! 

People-watching made the miles pass faster too…and so many people to watch…right down to the older southern gentleman sitting at the curb of his front yard, sipping champagne/mimosas and eating strawberries as we passed…go look at the top banner slideshow of the marathon/half-marathon website, and see for yourself!  And the girl that hula-hopped through the entire half marathon, and stayed just in sight in front of me most of the 13.1 miles...this is the link to her story. And the MUSIC!  Band at every mile, and not all country music…in fact, most not!  Some of them seemed to feed off our support as we passed and cheered as much as we fed off their music!

I did hit my “wall” at about 11 miles, but as in my 1st half marathon, I had come too far, so I pushed through it, and before I knew it…Titans Stadium…where the finish line was…was in sight! 

Early in the race, I had decided to only look at my “ Total Time elapsed” on my Garmin instead of worrying about my pace, and that served me well.  As I ran into the stretch to the finish line, it looked like I was on pace to accomplish my goal of finishing in 3:30, and according to my Garmin time, I did. But I’ve finally figured out the time discrepancy between my Garmin and official race time.  I have my Garmin set to “pause” whenever I stop or slow down to almost stopped, and although I made no “porta-potty” stops, I did  stop to drink water/ eat fruit in both my Tulsa and Nashville half’s for a few seconds each time, whereas my race tag/chip doesn’t stop, so I’m now more comfortable with my “official” race times being correct, and will remember to set my Garmin not to pause when I stop to keep the two times as close to within each other as possible!  I gathered the energy to run across the finish line, and my official time was:

3:31:44

My official time for my first half marathon was 3:40:46, so I guess you could say I “PR’ed” in my second half by 9 minutes, 2 seconds!  I missed my personal goal by 1 minute, 44 seconds, but considering that the temp read 87 degrees when I finished, and doing my second half better in hot weather and sleep-deprived than I did my first in cool weather, I AIN’T COMPLAININ’!

I LOVED this race, and can’t wait to do it again next year. My new socks did their job, and I had one small blister on my right ball of my foot that once I lanced, was DONE, instead of the HUGE blisters I had on the balls of both feet, and covering both of my heel pads in my first half!  Being practically blisterless sure added to my enjoyment of this race experience!  For the number of racers and their families that came into Nashville for this race, everything ran like clockwork, and even people who had no interest in the race or running could not have been more helpful!  With this just being my 2nd half marathon, and doing my  2nd yearly cycle of races, I will probably try others along the way along with my hometown St. Jude Half, but I will always make room for the Country Music Half Marathon!

On a sad note…I’m beginning to wonder if I’m a “jinx” on other runners.  In the half marathon that Andrea and I did in November, which was my first, a young 21 yr. old man died on the course at about mile 9-10.  It was the first death in the race’s history.  Last Saturday, a 26 year old soldier from Ft. Campbell died just after crossing the finish line of the half marathon in just a couple of minute over 2 hours… a healthy guy!  In it’s 10 year history, this was the first death at the Country Music Half Marathon. Here is a link to 2 TV news videos about the soldier and the weather condtions for the race, and newspaper story about the soldier's death, and unusual weather conditions for this race.

I’m just about recuperated, and although I didn’t seem to wind up with any unusual pain or damage, my IT Band, and the outside of my knee where the IT Band attaches to the knee have been inflamed, but as of this morning, the tightness in my knee seems to be almost gone, so hoping to get back out and “do my thing” in the next day or two!  I believe my experience at the Country Music Half has gotten me HOOKED, and will help to keep me motivated to do better in my running/walking, and weight loss! Over the summer, I will probably not do more than 7 or 8 miles at the most for “long runs” on Saturdays. Nothing but a few 5k’s and hopefully the 10k that is run in my neighborhood the end of June are planned for the summer, but come the first of August, GAME ON again in preparation for the St. Jude Half Marathon on my birthday weekend in December! LOL...I still will be slow compared to everyone else, but ANY improvement for me is a victory!

Looking forward to meeting all the EP'ers that are planning/thinking about coming to Memphis for the St. Jude Half Marathon, but you all also need to keep a space open for the end of April 2010, and come do the Country Music Half Marathon too...it's a BLAST running with 30,000+ of your closest running buddies!