DRC Half Marathon (pace job) race report - 20 days til Tulsa

Before the start of this season I decided I would be part of this race whether I was racing it or pacing it.  I raced the 2011 DRC Half which at that time was my 2nd ever half but skipped this event last year in 2012, still not sure why.  Never again.  It is hands down the best organized half  marathons in the area and I just found out one of the oldest half marathons in the country.  I'm trying not to be biased but it's true.  Sorry, Rock N Roll Dallas.  That makes me even more honored to have the opportunity to pace this event.

Pre-Race
     As usual, I couldn't sleep the night before.  I may have gotten in 4-5 hours sleep which is adequate, and this was the end of daylight savings time so by setting the clocks back an hour we all gained an hour of sleep- or an extra hour of wake for me.  I went ahead and got out of bed around 4:30 am and fixed a light breakfast, got my gear together then left to get an early parking spot.  I met up with the rest of the pace group at the DRC tent and grabbed the 2:05 pace stick which was what me and my co-pacer Jackie C. was assigned.  We had new pace sticks, ones that seemed to be lighter and more wind tolerant.  And they looked great. There was a nip in the air, the temperature at start was exactly 50 degrees.  I had a long sleeve shirt on over my orange TEAM DRC singlet.  I was thinking I would be freezing when I took it off, but it felt great out there.  One thing, I noticed I put my shorts on backwards.  How I did that and didn't notice I have no idea ha ha.  I ducked into the DRC tent and put them on correctly then found my co-pacer.  We lined up in the corral and as we were waiting for the start, dailymile friend Meg popped up.  I got a quick pic with her and wished her well.  I then looked around and noticed that I was surrounded by most of the folks from my 4:10 pace group, A.K.A "3:70".  We had a large group run with us in general.

Race Start
     Jackie brought two different pace bands to wear on our wrists.  One with even paces and one with negative splits.  She asked me which one we should use and I recommended the even splits as I checked out the newly designed course and it looked as if it would be fairly flat with little elevation changes.  I was correct.  75 percent or more of the course was on the lake.   Once we got out of the initial race congestion, it was easy peasy.  There were a couple small hills but nothing major that you couldn't get through if had been training for it.  I tried to pace slowly up the hills and pick the pace up going down.  I would check and look back ever so often and notice the same faces behind me.  Good to go.  We got a little ahead at one point but as you can see by our splits below, we pretty much nailed it all the way through.  We needed to stay at about a 9:25-ish pace.  My 4:10 group stuck with us through most of this race and a few of them took off toward the end and broke their personal records.  At the end I had numerous people come up to me and thank us for pacing them through the race.  I love hearing that and that is what it is all about and why I love pacing.  The official results, we finished with a chip time of 2:04:53.  It don't get too much better than that.

Post Race
     Post race food was OK but I was grateful.  Freebirds was there handing out tacos and In-and-Out Burger were handing out burgers.  There was a beer tent set up as well.  If you were patient enough to wait through the long lines, you got refreshed.  Legs felt fine a little tired probably due to I ran 11 miles at a semi fast pace the day before.  Overall a great race, nicely organized.  Pacing is going great both in racing and with my group.  Training is going well.  Hoping this season ends as well as it seems it will.

Me and Meg from dailymile, our first meeting
ever just before race start.

Me and Jackie, approaching the finish line
 about to nail our target time.

Garmin splits, we held it pretty steady throughout.

Free burgers after the race from In-N-Out Burger