Why the “almost half-marathon” was the best ever…. 4 Bridges report

Sunday, October 15, 2017 was my 3rd running of the 4 Bridges Half Marathon in Chattanooga. Sadly, it would turn out to be the second time the course was shortened by half mile. 🙄

But– I’ll save you the rant about that. Yes, I was hoping for a big PR. Yes, I was hoping to go sub 3 hours for the first time ever. All 8 of my half marathons have been between 3:13 and 3:44…  so I was hoping this day I would see my dream come true. I knew it would be close. My longest run was 9 miles, at a 13:30 pace.  The big question– could I add 4 more miles and keep it under 13:45? If so, I would meet my goal….

See that handsome some young man in the pic? He’s my oldest son, Jimmy. It was a joy to have him running his very first 13.1 with me! We stayed together for 5-6 miles, doing 4/1 intervals as per my coach’s plan for my long run… all was good, except my sweet son whom I adore, was talking, well, um, incessantly. 😊😜…. meanwhile I was starting to get very serious and focused.  While he was having fun and enjoying it all, I was starting to realize I have a goal I wanted to meet, and this wasn’t social hour. Finally, I guess I snapped at him (who me?!) and said “stop talking!”  What I meant was, “Honey, dear sweet firstborn of my womb, whom I love with an endless love, if you can talk this much, it means you can run faster, so scoot along now”….  Clearly he understood, because he took off, I never saw him again, and he finished 8 minutes ahead of me. Go Jimmy! So so proud of him!

So I’ll keep this short. It wasn’t until I approached the Walnut Street Bridge that I realized the course was short again. Ugh! I was so disappointed! When I made the final turn to the finish line, I had a brief thought to turn around and add some extra mileage. But at 12.5 miles, it’s hard to do that. I was so bummed.

I finished in 2:52, at a 13:47 pace. But it was only 12.6 miles 😡 Chances are I would have finished the 13.1 just barely under 3 hours. But I’ll never know, will I? There’s only one way to find out. Sign up for another race.  So I’ll try it again in another week, and meanwhile I will hope 4Bridges gets its act together with accurate distance.   But– this was perhaps my most favorite half marathon anyways– because my son ran it with me! And the scenery is beautiful, and I did finish sub 3 hours. 😝