Huntsville Marathon 2014, another PR

This is going to get expensive. In Mt. Nebo Half I tried a new pair of runners and got a PR. Decided to try this again today, wore a new pair of running shoes and GOT ANOTHER PR, in a Full Marathon this time. I know they don't recommend running a race in a pair of shoes which you haven't used, but it worked for me, and not even any blisters after running 26.2 miles in rain.

The morning started off with tons of thunder and lightening. Up at 4:45, Wan met Joey and I at the house and we headed up to South Ogden to pick up Stacey, then we drove up over Mountain Green to Huntsville. We were a little bit later than we hoped for Wan to meet up with the pacers, but it seemed to work out. We got on the bus and met up with Angie and Galen. Wan would be pacing the 4:15 people and we thought about running with him for a bit, but thought we need to go a bit faster, maybe.

Beautiful picture taken by Wan.

Its wet! Photo by Nicole Huffman

They warned the race could be cancelled if the lightening started again, but it cleared off and it was just clouds and rain, lots of it!


Driving up in the school buses, we passed a number of the aid stations being set up by the volunteers. People see us crazy as racing in this weather, but those volunteers are incredible getting up so early, in that kind of weather and being so supportive for us crazy people.

This race was the first marathon Joey (my son) and I have run together. Like Galen told us, there aren't very many people who can say they've run a marathon with their son or father.
First stop when we got to the start area was use the washrooms. Next stop, get warmed up in the tent. It actually wasn't too cold compared to the previous two years, just a wee bit wetter. We met up with Janet Huffman and Nicole, this was Nicole's first marathon also. Visited with them in the tent and also met a guy from Spruce Grove near Edmonton Alberta, Darrell Burgess, another Canuck! Someone asked what I was hoping to finish with. Told them somewhere between 4:00 and 4:30. Any of that would be a new PR for me.

The time until the gun went flew by. I threw my clothing bag into the trailer, went to use the toilets again and was wondering why I felt so cold on my upper body but not my legs, then realized I still had my sweat pants on. I tried to find my clothing bag in the trailer, but it was already buried. Fortunately Janet was able to find hers and my pants hitched a ride to the finish with her clothes.
Talked to Cathi Gridley who was doing her 99th marathon, with St. George next week being her 100th. I think she's pretty excited to be done.

I rushed to get a picture of Joey and I prior to the race and the gun went. I was still trying to store my camera as I crossed the start line.

Love these guys, Wan and Johnny.

Both Joey and I were wearing big black garbage bags, with holes cut for our heads, to stay dry, plus ball caps. Wearing a hat is something I rarely do, but they are definitely an asset in the rain. They worked great, lots of room to move our arms while running, and kept most of the rain off our bods.

We finally had decided we'd follow the 4:00 pacer and see how things went and we were actually ahead of him for quite awhile of the race.
The rain was fairly heavy and consistent for most of the first part. but our 'rain gear was working well'.
The first 6 miles we were doing about an 8:30/m pace. My bladder was killing me, my pace was dropping, and finally around mile 9 I couldn't stand it any longer and stopped for a potty break, Joey kept running and I told him I'd try to catch up to him. After coming out of the portapottie I threw away my garbage bag and passed a lot of people as I tried to catch up to him. It took 1.5 miles, which also gave me my fastest paced mile of 8:03.

This was the popular fashion of the day. Nicole and Janet.

At the half marathon starting line Joey stopped for a pottie break and I walked for a bit.  My time at that point was 1 hour and 54 minutes. Not too bad a half marathon time. Rank at that point was 163.

Mile 19 I was burning out and finally told Stacey and Joey to keep going, I was going to take a walk break.  I used this time to remove my shirt and hang my cap on my belt. It was warming up, I was feeling pretty dry, it was finally time! Shortly after this the rain returned, lightly at first, then it got a bit heavier, I retrieved my cap. And then it got cold! Wet and freezing! There was no point in putting the shirt back on as I was as wet as I could get, but my hands had lost feeling in the fingers. I saw a number of garbage bags discarded by previous runners and did think about grabbing one and putting it on, but stuck with the shirtless running. The rain didn't seem like it was going to stop it kept bucketing down. I'm sure many at the aid stations thought I was some kind of kook. They were all bundled up in winter clothing and then there's this nut job running like its the middle of the summer.

Walking to the starting line. Photo by Nicole Huffman

Around mile 21 I came across Dulcinea, she was excited to see her favorite Canadian. She told me she had seen a few of the others including Johnny Ahn, I asked if he was running without a shirt and he was! Thumbs up!

I was struggling to run as much as I could without walking but it was unavoidable. I had to take some walk breaks, but took as few as possible.

Mile 24.5 I came across some emergency vehicles with a guy laid out on a stretcher. I don't know what the issue was but I didn't know him and within a few minutes an ambulance came rushing by us towards him. Hopefully everything turned out fine for him. I was reminded of my hands and realized they weren't as cold as they had been. Most of the feeling had returned except for the tips of my fingers.

A half mile before the end of the course I caught up to Stacey and ran with her. She was spent like me and she said she was hurting all over, but she was doing great. We rounded the final corner and could see the finish line. While running together we didn't walk any which pleased me, so running with her that last bit helped me a lot also. We met up with her husband who started running with her and encouraging her,

so I told them I'm sprinting to the finish. I started sprinting too soon as I was fading before I finally crossed the finish line. I saw Joey wrapped up in the foil blanket along the edge of the finish line and he told me he had gotten a 4:02:51. Pretty proud of him. I finished with a 4:13:55, a new PR! Slightly closer to the 4:00 finish than the 4:30 :) Twenty two minutes faster than my previous PR which was on this same course last year and about an hour faster than the first time I ran this two years ago. Rank by the end was 158 so I had passed 5 more people than had passed me in the last half. I can live with that.

Overall Place 158 of 331, Gender Place 87 of 156, Age division 6 of 17. They had said before the race that this year was a record number of people registered for their races but it seemed like the number of participants who showed up was down. I'm sure a lot saw the weather and decided to stay home.

Nicole and Janet almost at the finish line with Janet's grandkids.

It was still raining at the finish area and we got into our dry clothes, but they were getting wet bit by bit. We met up with a few people we knew at the finish and then the three of us headed out. A quick stop at Subway in Huntsville and then we were on our way home from another successful race.

We didn't see many of our friends from the half marathon as I'm sure they were so cold and wet they didn't stay around which I don't blame them for doing at all. I think London was the only one I saw from that group. She was collecting up the pacing signs.