Pacing the Runner's World Half Marathon

It has been an outstanding weekend, capped off by pacing the inaugural Runner's World Half Marathon in Bethlehem.  This was a busy weekend for sure.  I started off by working the expo booth on Friday.  I got to meet some of the other pacers as well as just a few other folks.  On Saturday, I didn't get to race the 10K like I had planned, since I had a funeral to attend.

Saturday night continued the entertainment.  I was back from the funeral in time for the pasta dinner.  I got there earlier than some of the other pacers, so I just sat with a random group of people.  Kelley's dad actually ended up sitting at my table.  He had forgotten that I met him the day before.  I talked with a bunch of the other people at the table as well as him.  One of them was local, but another was from New Hampshire and yet another was from Florida.  That was kind of the theme of the weekend.  With all the races going on and the speakers that Runner's World had setup, they truly made this an event.

I sat with the pacers a little bit at the dinner too.  We discussed some strategy and other things.  We killed time until seeing Matt Long speak.  He survived getting run over by a bus.  He came back and ran a marathon and completed an Ironman.  Even though my post surgery wasn't anywhere near what he went through.  I can certainly relate to him in a lot of areas of recovery.  The hospital stay was tough and I was depressed for months.

Sunday was the feature race.  The Runner's World Half Marathon.  I chose to run the D&L Half Marathon in a couple weeks as my goal race because it is flatter and cheaper.  Thankfully, my friend Laurie told me that more pacers were needed for this race.  I signed up to pace the 2:10 group.  I knew that would be fun and also a challenge.

I'm shooting for running around a 1:30 half marathon in two weeks.  My training runs are fairly comfortable and I usually run about 1:45 in those for the half marathon distance.  This was definitely a slower distance that I'm used to.  We had two pacers, so that was a huge help.

Ingrid, who I didn't meet until this weekend, was the other pacer.  She is experienced in doing this, so I followed her lead.  Going between the parking area, bathrooms and start line was somewhat of a pain before the race, but I managed.  We had to meet early to get a photo of all the pacers together at the starting line.  Olympic Marathoner Shalane Flanagan was there all weekend to meet people and sign autographs.  She decided to run the race as a training run.  Some training run, as she was still the 2nd place female.  Since she was running, she got into the photo with the pacers.  That was cool.

Ingrid and I then lined up near our starting position.  They didn't have corral starts, but they still made signs showing the goal paces.  Kelley and her dad happened to be starting near me.  It was good to see them.  They made matching shirts to run together with.  Her dad hasn't run more than 5Ks lately, so it was impressive to see him running with her.  I ended up answering a lot of questions about pacing at the start.  Mainly, people wanted to know if we were running through the water stations or not.  We weren't ever planning on stopping, just slowing a bit maybe.

The weather and wind made dressing a little tricky.  I knew that the arm sleeves would be a bit much when running, but I felt that they would be needed while standing around.  Maybe I should've worn a junk sweatshirt to throw away.

We started off on time.  Since we were so far back, we didn't cross the starting line until over a minute after the clock started.  This was actually a perfect sized race.  It was big, the biggest in Lehigh Valley, but not as crazy as an overcrowded big city race.  As a pacer, I was kind of concerned that it might get crowded around us in the beginning, but it wasn't too bad.

The start is downhill in front of Bethlehem Steel.  With the excitement of the race, we went out a little fast.  It was fine to begin quick since we had a hill up ahead and a lot of hills in general.  I came in the first mile at 9:45.  Our goal pace was 9:55.  That was pretty good.

The first hill when up through Lehigh's campus.  Like most of the hills on this course, it was short and wasn't too steep.  One guy told us he ran the Big Sur Marathon, so this was nothing.  This course is meant to be a scenic race through a historic medium sized city, not a PR course.

After going uphill, it was back downhill and then more turning.  That's how most of the course was.  A lot of winding around and short climbs and drops.  We crossed over the Fahy Bridge and had a wonderfully cool breeze.  We settled into a nice and consistent pace.  Since I'm inexperienced, I was a little worried that we might be going too fast.  A few seconds too fast and it is just too much for some people, especially with the hills.  I let Ingrid lead the way.  As always, I was checking my watch way too much.

After crossing the Fahy Bridge, it was on to the cool section of the course.  This takes you through the historic area and then the quaint shops of Main Street.  The first water stop was around here.  We went through it and Ingrid took water, but I didn't.  I only drank once on the course.  I can run a half without anything to drink.  I will refuel a little more in my goal race.

Main Street isn't steep, but it a gradual hill.  After going up it and then turning, we dropped back down again.  For a short stretch here, it is kind of industrial.  At this point, Ingrid asked who around us had traveled for this race.  Just within our little group, we had two people from Texas, one from Florida and I think others from North Carolina and Minnesota.  They said that people had traveled into town for this race, but I figured it would just be a person here or there.  I really didn't think this many people would come from out of town.  I guess that's the power of  Runner's World.  Every other race around here is much, much more local.  This looks like it will be a nice little destination race for years to come.

Ingrid asked a lot of different questions to the folks with us.  She was cheering at time, giving instructions and often encouraging the runners around us.  I was a little more quiet, just chatting with some of the people as well as Ingrid.  I had to watch and make sure I didn't get too talkative though or I might've lost focus on the pace.  I need to say more to the group if I pace future races.

After the industrial section, we climbed up to Schoenersville Road.  This was the toughest section of the course without question.  The first hill of this part was steep, but short.  The main part of Schoenersville wasn't steep, but it was a gradual uphill.  It was quite long.  I felt bad because I told people that none of the hills were too steep or too long.  This one was definitely long and some people started dropping.

We turned onto Illick's Mill Road.  There was a slight break at this point.  This was the only time I took anything to drink.  I tried drinking some Gatorade.  I didn't drink too much.  I didn't need a lot though.  With this easy pace, I was feeling alright.  I was sweating, so I needed some fluids.  I wasn't breathing hard at all or really working.  I was just cruising along.

Our pace was quite solid at this point.  We were clicking off pretty consistent laps.  They were somewhere in the neighborhood of 9:45.  We were probably about 45 seconds or so ahead of pace.  We had a decent amount of people with us, but it wasn't crowded.  Other pacers said that mile 4 wasn't placed right on the course, but I didn't notice.  Now that I see that that pace was 10:00,  that is probably right.  Part of it was definitely the hills though.  We did slow the pace through that section.

I wanted my dad to come and take a couple pictures of me.  He said he wasn't going to go to watch me pace.  I had told him that he could get to this area north of town quite easy.  I was just about to tell the group how he wasn't coming, then he appeared along Illick's Mill Road with a camera.  I didn't notice the crowd too much, so I'm surprised I saw him.  Since I didn't think he was coming, I had my camera.  He had to use his crappy one.  I saw him and my mom by Bethlehem Catholic High School and then I saw him again at Moravian College.  It was good to see them there, even if it wasn't a serious race.

The hill up Illick's Mill was certainly tough.  More people dropped off here.  After that, we went through a nice little neighborhood.  There were a few people out in their yards cheering us on.  That was cool.  The road was narrow at one section and some people began walking or slowing at that point.  It was tough to get by them.

As we headed out of the neighborhood towards Center Street, we could see the runners behind us.  This is a rare spot where you see other runners besides the ones directly behind or ahead of you.  April yelled to me as she was in the other section.  I waved back to her.  She just set a 5K PR and was cruising around the half marathon.

On Center Street was one of the best spectators that I saw all day.  This little girl that could barely say much had a sign that said, "Go Runners Go" and she kept yelling the same thing.  It was cute.  I joked that those were her first words.  It was impressive how solid the crowd was for this event.

In this area, my pacer band on my wrist began to tear.  It was just a piece of paper.  I probably should've taped it all around to make it stronger.  It was a little tough to read.  What I could salvage of it, I taped to my pacer sign.  Ingrid is a veteran and she did that all day.

Dewberry Street, in front of Beca, was a gradual uphill.  This was actually the only tough section for me.  Most of the race had a lot of shade, either from buildings or trees, or it had wind.  This section had neither and suddenly I was getting hot.  I thought maybe I would struggle for the rest of the run.  I felt much better after this stretch though.

After going through another neighborhood, it was on to Washington Avenue.  That was an awesome gradual downhill.  It is near the great downhill part of the Freedom to Liberty run that I did so well in back in June.

Somewhere towards the end, my IT band bothered me slightly.  I was a little worried because when that happens, I feel better if I run faster.  I didn't have that option today though.  Thankfully, it went away.  I felt pretty good all run.  I found that I was running up on my toes a lot at this slow point, so I tried to mix up my form a little throughout the run.  I didn't want to stress anything too much.

We turned down Main Street and through Moravian College.  Their field hockey team had to wait for us to cross the street.  I asked them if they wanted to run with us before practice.  Then I saw that they had a bus, so I guess is was an away game.  If they had to travel, then not running the race was acceptable in my book.

The course then turns onto Fairview.  I thought this was the tough uphill near the end, but it was actually on New Street.  That hill was hard and spit out a lot of the runners.  Still no big deal at my pace, but it would've been hard if I was pushing it.  After this, it was nice as it was basically all downhill.

We ended up catching a lot of folks who were struggling as we turned onto Market Street.  Some said they were wondering where we were.  Other people were doing well and cruised well ahead of us once we started going downhill.  Coming down from Church Street to the Fahy Bridge, a lot of people went by us.  That was good to see.  We tried to made sure to keep going slowly.

On the Fahy Bridge, Joe ran by us.  Apparently he knows both Ingrid and I.  It was good to see him cruise on by.  Ingrid had to tie her shoe on the bridge and then catch back up to me.  I told her that if it was that late in the race, I would've just run without it tied.

We had slowed our pace slightly, but were still around 40 seconds or ahead of pace.  We were supposed to come in under 30 seconds under goal pace, so that was perfect.  Going around the Bethlehem Steel complex to finish was all flat.

We kept going and going and at one point, I asked Ingrid if we got to the Mile 12 marker yet.  She said she didn't see it either.  We should've been at it by that point.  Throughout the run, my watch was very, very close to the actual race distance at the mile markers.  At most, it was around .05 miles off.  Now, I was well beyond that.  Finally, we hit the mile 12 marker.  My watch said, 12.20 miles.

Up until this point, we were almost perfect on our pace plan.  With this screw up, we started to get worried.  If we had another mile to go, it would've been very close to goal pace.  Shortly after the 12 mile marker, my watch was at 2 hours flat.  We would only have seconds to spare at best if the last mile or so was accurate.

Because we were worried, Ingrid and I picked it up.  There isn't a more important mile marker than mile 12 for us pacers.  We needed that one to be accurate and it wasn't.  I tried to stay on the outside, so that runners could pass us if they were feeling good in this final mile.

We went around the Sands and had about 5 minutes to go.  I knew we were doing okay at that point.  We went between a couple of the old buildings and were on the final stretch.  The run finished up just after the flaming arch at the SteelStacks complex.  Race Director, Bart Yasso of Runner's World, was there at the finish announcing.  The finish area was crowded with spectators.  It was so loud there when combined with the buildings.  That might be the loudest finish I've ever gone through.  That would've been a huge lift it was running hard at the end and not cruising.

It felt weird to not sprint finish.  Ingrid and I crossed the line together.  Officially, our time was 2:09:22.  We couldn't get much closer to our goal that than.  Having an experienced pacer like Ingrid was a huge help.  I wouldn't have been that close on my own.  It was good to bounce our times of our watches off of each other.  Since we started a minute late, our clock time was off by about a minute from our chip time.  Chip time is what we were shooting for though.

The finishing area was so crowded that it was hard to find anyone.  I ran into the pace leader, Chris and a bunch of the other pacers.  We talked about that one mile at the end being too long.  I saw Kelley and her dad.  They finished behind me, but did well.  I'm so jealous that she gets to run with her dad.  I saw Gary from the BCR and he achieved his time goal.  Joe, who we saw at the end of the race, was right around what he expected.  It was a long way back to the car, so I started running.  Then I passed Tom and Sarah from the BCR.  Tom has been racing like crazy lately, but with Sarah's help, he ran a new half marathon PR.  He came in at 1:38 something.  He never broke 1:40 before.  I also ran into Lauren, who coaches the Nazareth cross country team.  I'm glad to see that everyone did so well.

This race was a lot of fun.  Sometimes it is nice to slow down.  I wasn't sore at all afterward.  Now, I'm just a little stiff.   It is nothing too bad.  I took a rare two complete days off before the race and that was big help to my quads.  They really weren't sore at all at the beginning of the race.  If I have to take off some more time to rest them before my real half, at least I know it is helpful.

All around this was a great weekend and a great race.  This is already the premier running event in the Lehigh Valley and I assume it will only get bigger.  I was so grateful to be a pacer.  I got to run a couple races for free and mostly importantly interact with fellow like minded crazy runners.  Seeing the seminars, getting a free meal and a free Garmin watch were all a nice bonus.  If it fits into my schedule, I will definitely pace again.  It is nice to just enjoy the run every now and then and not be so competitive.  I finished in 1863rd place overall and don't think I ever had more fun.  Of course, I'm still going to run serious, but this was a nice change up.

I didn't think about it during the race, but this race was special to me for another reason.  My grandfather came over to this country from Europe and worked many long and hard hours at Bethlehem Steel to help build this country.  I have a lot of respect for those guys back in that day.  It is assume what the steel became, but at least they've made good use of the area now.

The leaves are changing around here and are a multitude of different colors in the Poconos.  My dad is taking off tomorrow, so I want to hike up at the Delaware Water Gap.  There is an awesome view if you hike the New Jersey side and with all the different colors now, it will be spectacular.  That's another one of the great perks about living around here.  I may or may not run up there, depending on how I feel.  If I run, it will likely be just 3 or 4 easy miles on the McDade Trail.  I look forward to a great final two more weeks before my goal race.

13.21 miles - 2:09:23 (9:48 pace)