Crossroads of Indiana Half Marathon (aka: another-nother night in the car)

the drive down was pretty good, picked up David at his dorm at U of I (university of illinois champaign-urbana) then left for Lowell Indiana, which was thankfully much more urban than i expected. for example, there were more than 20 buildings in this town unlike the last few that ive raced in. to be serious, i liked the feel of Lowell: rural with nice people, but not so rural that people look at you weird if you from the outside world.
after we arrived, we explored a bit and took care of the essentials. it was too late for anything to be open, so we bought bottled water out of a vending machine outside an apartment complex. and after finding no better place to park the car for the night, we decided to sleep at Freedom Park, the site of the race.
i quickly found out that for the exceptionally fit person he is, my friend David snores a bit. usually the unhealthier the person the quieter they sleep, so that was rather surprising. but i didnt plan on getting any sleep either way. ive probly averaged less than two hours of sleep the night before my last four races, but surprisingly im pretty sure i got closer to three and a half this time.
i hate blogs dedicated to rants about stuff people dont like, and i did enjoy the race, but there were a few problems. first off, i signed up for this race early, and as is the case all to often at races, they gave the small shirts away to race-day sign-up's and left me with a sheet of paper that said i signed up to get a small and and apathetic non-athlete telling me that there are none left. its not that big of a deal, except two things. first, im 5'6" and about 4% bodyfat at 127 pounds, so a medium makes me look less like an athlete and more like a skinny kid in hand-me-downs. second, it doesnt matter how proud i am of the race, im not risking chafed nips by working out in a loose shirt. im not a runner that has to match when i workout, but i dont wana look like a complete clown, for the sake of all runners -we gota dress decent enough to still look ok when were running down the roads half dead with GU dripping down our chins.

pom-blueberry Roctane after a brief warmup.
it funny how many looks i get with this hoodie, but its
just my thing now i guess

the next problem was shortly after i picked up my shirt. i joined the line for the porta-potties with what i thought to be plenty of time to spare. after almost 20 minutes i had made my way to the front of the line, only to see most of the people behind me, and thankfully some people in front of me, leaving to head for the starting line. it was 7:29 when a stall opened up for me, and the race was to start at 7:30. for some reason i can poop in seconds when i have all the time n the world to do it, but i seem to get performance anxiety when i have to go fast. plus there was about 300 meters between me and the start line still, so it wasnt a successful bathroom visit. sure i could have got in line sooner and actually gotten to go, but there were about 30 people that were left with extra weight during the race. im assuming that means that the race director is either not a runner, or didnt expect that much of crowd, i hope the latter for his sake. the two rules(as i have discovered, and i know many agree) of directing a race: there are never enough smalls and there are never enough bathrooms.
other than that my only other complaint is the lack of mile markers on the course, there were none, and the lack of voluteers at one of the more important intersections of the race. the course overall was very well marked with cones, but one of the turns had no signs or volunteers to direct us and the line of cones went straight forward, so i followed them (and the runner in front of me) only to realize that i must have been part of the marathon course. it turned out that there were indeed cones concealed somewhat by trees. ugh, enough bitching.
as i ran past my car on the way to the start line, i turned a few heads as i "got naked." im pretty sure i startled at least a few people with my short-shorted, arm-warmered, and shirtless self, not only at the start, but also at the aid stations. but considering that it was about 45 degrees at 7:30 and probably 55 degrees by 9:00, i was glad i went with just the arm-warmers. if your arms are warm, then your hands are warm.
the start was fast. i didnt use my forerunner for this one, so i had to just go with the pack. we had to have been at or below 6 minutes for the first mile. but by mile four i had settled into my pace and fighting the biggest battle of my race: the battle with my rectum. for the first half of the race it was stable enough and i was able to reel the kid (he was in my age group -under 19) in front of me in. im sorry, but if you need an ipod to run well, then you shouldnt be racing, period. i say that because this kid was using one and i know for certain that the website and registration info said 'no ipods.' plus, its just disrespectful to your competition and to the people that cheer for you that you dont care enough to have your ears open for a race. -so i had to pass him on principle. each hill we went over(and there were quite a few) i gained about 5-10 meters on him and breezed past him as the course opened up by the lake around mile six. but then it was right back in to the battle of my rectum. by mile nine or so two guys from behind me were pushing up to my side and as i tried to follow i realized that i couldnt wait til the finish line: this was gona happen now. so i saw an old newspaper on the side of the road and ducked about 20 feet of the road by the treeline and took care of buisiness. it only cost me about 30 seconds, but i never made up the time, and it didnt make me feel that much better. i was however able to stay with the guy that caught up to me during those 30 seconds, so i figured it would be good enough. me and that guy ended up taking the wrong turn together and an older guy passed us because of it. both of them finished in front of me. by the end i was pretty trashed and somewhat hopeless about the race as a whole: the unexpected hills and 30 mile per hour wind, the porta-potty situation, the lack of mile markers. i try to control everything i can with races and i feel thats one of the things that helps me run with people that are more talented than me, but i felt pretty derailed by this point. then, in the last 100 meters of the race, i saw the clock at the finish line: "1:26." all that and i had still PR'ed. not by the margin i had wanted, but enough to feel alright about the race, and in with those conditions thats not a horrible time for me.
im still not running up to my potential for the half marathon distance, but its only my second one ever. i feel that a sub-1:20 is something that i need to focus on in the next few months.
David had a good race as well, exceeding what he expected of himself, and that was amazing. seeing a runner calculate there pace in a race they just finished and realizing that they did better than they even hoped for is a beautiful thing. congratulations David.
ive decided against racing next weekend to allow myself to get some heavy training in. i need to get some longer tempo work in and some crippling lifting workouts in before the marathon on the 30th and i have some great workouts planned already. and if i can race a 10k between then and now, ill do it.
pics soon.