Weather You Like It

Marathon training starts monday. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervousand excited all at once…

RACE DAY! While usually I would have planned my race outfit days ahead of time, I had trouble figuring out just exactly what I wanted to wear. Once I picked up my Steel City Road Runner singlet at the expo I figured I would wear that if there were no immediate problems running in it the night before. I also wanted to wear the Team Sparkle skirt that I had purchased at the Cherry Blossom expo - another piece of gear I had not worn ahead of time. Since the skirt is a legit skirt and I would have to wear something underneath it, I figured I would be safe to wear it. I opted to not wear my fluid belt, which come to find out later would have been helpful, but I decided I didn’t want the extra weight. I did bring a small belt for my gels and chomps though. I also carried my vertigo medicine with me. If I was going to get dizzy, at least I would have my medication. Though, if I took the medication, that meant the race was over…I wouldn’t be able to finish on it.

Breakfast was standard. I made sure to eat cereal that I normally eat before a run. I wasn’t taking any chances. Since I live about 20-25 minutes north of the city and I knew there would be plenty of people traveling from all around Pittsburgh to park downtown I had made the plan to park on the North Shore at the casino and take the new light rail into the city. The connecter would stop only a block or so from the start and right near Corrals D and E - where Laura and I would start. Since I was unsure of the traffic on the Parkway West (376 E inbound to Pittsburgh for those who do not live here), I decided to wake 51 through Coraopolis and McKees Rocks. At 5:30am there was no traffic! I was happy that I made that decision though I’m sure the Parkway wasn’t as backed up as I thought. I will tell you, while on the outside I was all calm on the drive in, inside I was doing this…

Once we got to the Casino though and I knew we had plenty of time, the jitters settled a bit. Thankfully we all remembered our IDs so we were allowed to go through the casino which also meant use of the bathrooms. It was so nice to not have to wait in line and have a real bathroom though I knew I would be making at least one porta potty stop before the race started. 

This is how happy we were to use REAL bathrooms!

Walking through the casino we received many well wishes from the casino workers. We even had two guys at the bar screaming at us “yea ladies, you can do it!”. This is when the real excitement began. We left the casino to head over to the T station. I was excited because I’ve never used the Pittsburgh light rail despite living here for 3 years. It isn’t an extensive subway/trolley system with only a few stops from the North side and South side into the city. But regardless, it was neat getting on the train filled with runners. 

passing Heinz field on the T.

We gate over to Gateway center and as soon as we reached the top stop it was a sea of runners. Everyone was buzzing with the excitement of raceday. Before Laura and I headed over to our Corral we opted to use the bathrooms near the Point since the lines didn’t seem as excessive as I had remembered last year near the Corral. This was a smart move. After about a 10 minute wait I was able to use the restroom and then Laura and I took a few pictures together and explained where the boys could see us at the start and finish. 

At around 7am we headed towards our Corral. There were so many people that it took us a while to get back to Corral E and once we were in there we were very near the back. I told Laura that we should move forward. Despite the illness, part of me really want to run the half at 2:20 like I had wanted so I situated us between the 2:15 and 2:30 pacer groups. I figured if we stayed at least between them we were golden. I was hoping to run into my friend Lora from the Steel City Road Runners but from the looks of it, and photos that I have seen, she was actually just on the opposite side of the corral. Bummer…

Laura and I before the start

*BANG*

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Alright folks I’m finally posting my highly anticipated review of the Pittsburgh Half Marathon.

Okay, I may be exaggerating slightly on the highly anticipated part but what would this blog be without recaps of the races I do?

Absolutely NOTHING.

All the weeks of training led up to this race. I signed up for the Half Marathon back in September at the Great Race expo. Last year Pittsburgh was my first half and I wanted to have the chance to run it again, this time with some solid time goals. Last year I had hoped to run it in 2:30 but after rolling my ankle at the start and having my knee give out at mile 7, I was happy to just say I completed the race. And hey, it was my first race last year so finishing really was the ONLY goal.

This year was supposed to be different. I had planned out my running schedule, despite adding the Lake Effect Half Marathon early on into the training plan. I had a much easier time following the plan with only a few hiccups between races. Having the weekend runs with the Steel City Road Runners club really helped me stick to my goals to run. Plus, I had the added bonus of some Physical Therapy (and cross training) that I believe benefited me as well.

Unfortunately, despite having a pretty good training plan and feeling fairly confident in my race goal of coming in near 2:20 (under 2:30), I couldn’t plan for everything. My last long-ish run before the half was the Sunday before; 6 miles. That run went well and other than getting blinded by gnats in both eyes - ewwwwww, I went home feeling fine. Monday morning everything changed. As a laid in bed, getting ready to get up and ready for work, I felt…off. Essentially I felt as if I had a hangover, a little lightheaded and dizzy. I got up though, got in the shower, and completed all of my regular morning activities. As I went to go blowdry my hair, I tilted my head and immediately felt as if the world was spinning. I actually fell over, grabbing onto the sink as I fell to the ground. Immediately I knew that something was not right - this was vertigo and I’ve never had it before. After attempting to go to work despite the dizziness, my coworkers sent me home (drove me home actually) and I spent the day on the couch not doing much of anything. Tuesday…nothing changed. I called the doctor and they called me back about a half an hour later and told me to head to the ER. I then spent 5 hours in the ER with my coworker as they did various tests to try and find out what was causing my vertigo and headaches. Everything came back fine. So, I was sent home with a prescription for dizziness medication and told to rest. When I asked if I could run the half marathon, the doctor said “not if you are still having these dizzy spells”. Great…

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loratastic:

On Sunday, May 6th, I completed the 2012 Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon. What started out as a bucket list item years ago can finally be checked off the list: I’m a marathoner. I’m in that 1% of the population. I’m a Runner of Steel.

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Because I’m a slacker and still waiting on some photos, check out my friend Lora’s blogpost about the Pittsburgh Marathon. She did the full and in great time (I hope that I can have a time like that for my first). Alot of what she went through was spot on with my experience of the race. I’ll *hopefully* post my recap shortly.

(Source: loratastic.com)