Rock The Parkway

The Inaugural Rock The Parkway was this past Saturday. Offering the three classic distances, 5k, 10k and Half Marathon, I opted for the Half. It's probably my favorite race distance, sitting as it does between the zoom ze bop bang of the 5 and 10ks and the long sappery of the longer distances. Jill meanwhile lined up for the 10k.

Despite it's virginal status and cold rainy conditions, 4,000 runners turned out to run one of the three distances. The course, while certainly considerably more challenging than the website pretends, isn't Hospital Hill or Psycho Wyco hard, and is a treat on the eyes, comprising tree-lined streets and some of the nicest residential areas of the city.

I think this race is an example of what an excellent marketing campaign and solid organization can achieve. To get this many runners in the first year requires some clever positioning, and from the very good website to the constant, interactive facebook updates and finally the execution of the event itself, the directors really got a lot right.

I arrived in plenty of time, leaving the warmth of the car a little while before Jill, whose race started 15 minutes later. A quick meander through the starting area, and I was able to find a spot right where I wanted, next to the 1:35 pace group leader, Tony. This was my goal going in, and I felt I had a decent shot at getting it, even though it would be quite a bit faster than my current PR. Training had been going well, and the trail work has really boosted my speed and core strength over the last few months.

The gun went off and within just a few seconds I was across the start line. The first couple of miles flew by. We were a little behind pace, which was intentional. The pacers were adopting a smart-technique where the first few miles are treated as a warmup, the next few are faster, and the last few are basically "hang in there".

I remember thinking during almost all of the first half that for a "gently rolling" course, much of the "rolling" seemed to be uphill with only a few scattered downhill moments. I felt Tony pick up the pace appreciably as we hit the 5-6 mile mark and indeed one quick stop at a water station and I had to work pretty hard to catch back up. I feared this might come back to bite me later.

Most of the route is on the famed Ward Parkway, but there's a middle loop through some residential sections near Loose Park and it's probably the best looking part of an already very scenic course. Jill and I had driven it the day before when it had been bathed in sunshine. The scenery wasn't quite as impressive through the gloom of the rain, but on the flip side, it was cool and not overly windy, so I wasn't complaining.

I think around 7.5 miles was when I started to feel it a bit, the seemingly constant, albeit fairly gentle, uphills starting to take their toll. Then I careened (almost out of control) down a quick steep downhill and realized I'd left my pace group behind. I figured I could slow down and wait for them, but kept going and whether I'd quickened or was just getting tired, I started to wonder if I was going to regret the move.

Fortunately, what goes up must come down, and the back side of the course as we re-entered Ward Parkway was almost all downhill with just a few little bumps along the way. It couldn't have come at a better time and I found myself working less hard to maintain my pace and my energy began to return.

At about 10 miles, I passed a very enthusiastic spectator with a flower power shirt and bright white pants for the second time who was yelling something about holding onto our "chi", bringing a brief, if somewhat confused, smile to my face. I started feeling tired again, and this time decided to take evasive measures by swallowing the energy gel I'd brought along before grabbing a cup of water at an aid station.

Half a mile later and the gel had kicked in and I was ready for my big finish. Very few people actually passed me after I left the pace group, but I caught up with a fair few, as well as some of the 10k and 5k runners still out on the course (they started later than the Half-ers).

Finally, using up the last of the gas in the tank, I crossed the finish line in 1:34:09. 7:11 pace, knocking 14 minutes of my previous race PR. Later, I found out I'd finished 86th out of 1,450. 16th in my age group. Getting faster anyway.

Jill was waiting for me at the end, having just finished her 10k, and we went to the post-race area which we breezed quickly through. Rattle and Hum were playing - and playing well - but the weather was just too cold and wet to stay long, so off we trotted.

It's weird to think this is only the third actual Half-Marathon race I've done. I think I've probably run the distance (or further) 20 or more times over the last year and a half, mostly in training obviously, but I've managed to lower my time each of the three times, so hopefully that trend can continue.

All in all, this was a great race. Very impressed, as mentioned, with the organization, giveaways (the tech shirts and medals were great, as well as the post-race refreshments and entertainment) and atmosphere. Next year's is already set; hopefully the rain will hold off next time, but other than that, couldn't really ask for too much more. I'll be back.