The Duke City Half Marathon, or? How I nearly ran a 10k and still managed to only get a little pin

I lived in the Duke City for nearly a decade, year round.  I now bounce around between here and FL and also to various travel assignments as a travel nurse.  I didn't start running until after I started travel nursing, so I've not done a ton of races here.

Yesterday, though, I ran my 10th half marathon.  I've done 9 others.  In, lemme think, 4 other states.  I've done many, many, many shorter races, some 10ks but mostly 5ks.  As well as a couple of local 5 mile races that I routinely do in FL.

The Duke City, for a fairly large race in a fairly large town was...different.  Which is, I suppose, as it should be.

Now, the route was great.  We got to run up Central Ave. (which is also part of historic Route 66)

It was gorgeous.  Gorgeous.

The now famous Dog House from Breaking Bad

and onto the Bosque Trail, a paved multi-use trail that follows the scenic Rio Grande.  Now, the advisability of using a 5' wide trail with 5000 participants?

Another problem was, they had one giant chute into which they channeled all the runners of all the various races (5k, 10k, 20k walk, half and full marathon).  They just had different start times for each distance.  The announcer was not very vociferous or very cheerful and certainly not very informative.  I stood in the chute, and noticed that a lot of people were all sort of bunching up and we all were asking each other, "Is this the 10k?  Did the marathoners already go?"  Eventually, there was a cheer from the crowd and the group in the chute dutifully headed toward the start line.  Thank God I realized before I got too close that it was the 10k start.

I then worked my way toward the back of the crowd (I'm slow, and knew that between not enough training and not enough time at altitude, I was going to be even slower in this race).  Once my race actually started, I felt great.  Started out strong.  It was crisp and quite cool, my favorite running weather, so it was tough to hold back my pace.

When I got to the turnaround, I was a bit surprised to see that 2 volunteers with clipboards, you heard me, clipboards, were writing down the bib numbers of the people who came through the turnaround.  No timing strip.  What if a volunteer was inattentive?  Would my race be voided?  This was disconcerting.

At least as disconcerting as the very low tech turnaround check was the deep, painful gluteal cramp that would. not. let. up.  I stretched and rubbed and stretched and finally had to walk it out.  Once the cramp seemed to be gone, I was at mile 7 and had a very hard time convincing myself to start running again.

I had (for me) gotten a respectable time for the first half and knew that I could speedwalk to the finish and have a time that was not horrible.

Eventually, I did run some more, but I was feeling the lack of training and the altitude.

While I most definitely did enjoy the beautiful scenery and the occasional chats with other participants along the way, the thing that pushed me was the 10th medal I would soon receive.

One of the best things about the route was turning that corner from Central down 3rd street and being able to see the finish line.  Talk about a burst of energy.  Suddenly I felt FABULOUS and put on a sprint.  I knew that the Rickster was there (this is only the 3rd of my half marathons he's actually attended) and he was happily holding the camera and ready to catch the big shot of my victorious dash across the finish line.

He tried.

Just as the Rickster lined up the perfect shot, a 7' tall, over-achieving marathoner dashed in front of me.  You can sort of see the bright orange "Team EMS" shirt, black tights and one white hobbit foot.  I would have posted a better, professional picture of me crossing, but those monopolistic bastards want $40 for one digital picture.  Really?

Still, I wanted a bottle of water and there was still that medal to be put around my neck.



Yeah.  About that.

Bling

There was someone there with little plastic wrapped somethings, I nearly bypassed her because I thought it was some sort of free sample.  Nope.  It was my "bling".  No medal.  Just a little 1" pin.  Oh and?  No bottled water at the end.  Cups.  The same as when you're running past.

Now, there are several big races I've run that I will run again.  The Cleveland Half, I've already signed up.  The Sarasota half, oh, absolutely (best route. ever).  The Rock & Roll in St. Pete, were they ever to do it again, happily.  But this?  Nah.  I feel much the same way I did about Graceland.  I truly am glad I did it.

I never need to do it again.