Illinois Valley Striders Half Marathon

Ok, I saw the official results: 141/166, 2:24:46; First half was 1:10:21; second was 1:14:25.

Note: I powerwalked; there were too many steep hills and too much gravel (say, 50-60 percent of the course) to attempt anything like legal racewalking. My knees were soft.

The day: low 50’s, sunny and drive. There was some wind at times, but the course gave you protection from the wind. But it was very, very hilly.

I admitted that I didn’t sleep well the night before due to staying up late to watch Illinois get CREAMED by Arizona State. Oh goodness; we looked terrible. But that is the subject of another post.

I decided to walk hard; I got in about a mile of warm up. And yes, I used trail shoes this time; there is too much rocky gravel to use the lighter race walking shoes. I got some sore shins but my feet didn’t get beat up.

I liked the atmosphere; the course had us doubling back several times. Hence I saw the entire field at one point or another. And there were many greetings exchanged; mostly from fellow long timers. I got to chat just a bit with a relay runner who passed me late; one of the other relay runners was someone I remember from Galesburg.

I started off in the back of the pack and then managed to pass a few people during the first mile; once we got to mile 3 or 4, I was more or less in the position that I was going to finish in. I got passed once in the second half and did some passing (not much).

The first half of the race went well; I enjoyed the “Go Bradley” from the Bradley XC team who was helping out. And I probably felt the best at mile 4 and again at mile 6; what helped some is that I changed walking technique from the gravel sections, the steep uphills and the steep downs and the flats. I was “sort of” racewalking on the flats and downs; I had a bent knee power walk on the uphills and a hiking style on the gravel.

The second half was tougher mentally; I was really tiring on the hills; perhaps the roughest was the first long incline on the second loop and the last big uphill from miles 10.5 to 12. I was internally cussing during this stretch.

But there was some light hearted banter too. T passed me on the first large uphill and said “Ollie, eyes UP” (e. g. “don’t look at her butt”). Then I passed her and I said “ok, now you are safe.” 🙂

Later (at least a couple of times) she made a point of saying that she and her friend were trying to catch me…and I admit that during the last part of the last loop, I kept thinking “oh no, she got me” when in fact, I was getting passed by a relay runner.

Fred (T’s very patient husband) took some photos; he joked that as I came in: “you’ve slowed to a WALK”. It took my fatigued brain a few minutes to catch the joke; I didn’t at first. After the race, he took a photo of T with me; I gave T some “bunny ears” and she said “you are a sh*thead”. All in fun. 🙂

Afterward, I had two diet Pepsis (nectar from the Gods!) and talked with Pat; Pat had placed 3’rd in the race this year, after placing 1’st last year. Not bad for a 4X year old!

As to me: I walked HARD; I was whipped when I finished. Just whipped; I gave it my best effort.

The clear medal is the IVS half marathon finisher’s medal. The trophy is from yesterday’s 5K run where I was second in the 50-59 age group.
Splits:

mile	split time
1	10:41
2	11:01
3	11:54 (mismarked)
4	9:17
5	11:16
6	10:25
7	10:31
8	11:31
9	11:38
10	10:32
11	11:02
12	11:41
13	13:11

Recent Past Half Marathon Walks
Galesburg
First Light
Quad Cities 2011
IVS 2011
Quad Cities 2010 Half Marathon