Cloudy and Sunny, Wet and Dry, 40 degrees and 70 degrees – That is difference between the 2010 Germantown Half Marathon and the 2011 Germantown Half Marathon.
It seemed like everyone in Memphis was running the G’town Half. At the start I chatted with Beth, Susan, Yu and Virgina. Virgina and I discovered we were both aiming for 9:00 – 10:00 minute miles and decided to try to run together. I can’t say enough how much this helped.
Right at mile 1 I bumped into Bobby’s dad, Mike (Last year I didn’t catch up to him until mile 5). For the first couple miles we ran with Patrick, but then he picked up speed. We caught up to Francesca around mile 4 and ran with her for a bit. We loved Mile’s hot dog costume and “power up boost” poster at mile 5.
The half way point at Houston High School featured a water stop hosted by all the Breakaway crew and a beer stop hosted by James, Keshia and Cassie (taking photos). One gentleman behind me grabbed a beer and said, “Don’t take my photo; I’m Baptist!” I was feeling so good I took a sip of beer, my first ever during a race!
This whole time Virgina and I had been staying closer to 9:00 minute pace than 10:00, and feeling great! We might both PR, but it would be close. We ran into Patrick again at mile 9-10 at Cameron Brown Park and ran with him some more (his knee was hurting really bad). It was at mile 10 last year where I couldn’t keep up with Keshia anymore and had to fall back. Not this year!
At mile 12-12.5 we saw Bobby! He had finished at 1:29:11 (a PR by a minute) and ran us in. I was feeling great and had a super fast sprint to the finish. My final time was 2:05:58. Virgina was right behind at 2:06:14. Our friends were not too far behind us.
Afterwards I felt a little lightheaded for a couple minutes, but after sitting down for 5 minutes, I was good. Apparently right after I finished some girl had to be put on a gurney for dehydration – it was a warm day. The food afterwards, was not so great: Soup, small generic cookies and bananas. I guess the rational is that it isn’t a marathon. Oh, and I did get my small tech shirt this year as opposed to last year!
What’s great about the Germantown Half:
- Mostly flat course
- Good crowd support
- Scenic, suburban course
- If it isn’t randomly ice cold and raining, there should be mild temperatures
- Everyone you know in Shelby County will be there!
What’s not-so-great about the Germantown Half:
- Food after race is not that good
- Shirts are tech, but could use a redesign – Rather small seal/logo left chest and sponsors on back (maybe make logo full chest at least?)