Race #77 – Germantown Half Marathon – Memphis, TN – 03/21/10


The weather couldn’t have been more beautiful as our plane touched down in sunny Memphis on Friday morning. We were able to check in to our hotel early and went for a memorable 5-mile run along the Mississippi River.  On Saturday the temperature climbed up into the lower 70s and we spent the day mostly just enjoying our long weekend in Memphis, basking in the beautiful spring sunshine and anticipating the upcoming race on Sunday morning.
Despite the beautiful weather on Friday and Saturday though, the weather outlook for Sunday wasn’t quite as positive. The same storm that was dumping snow on Oklahoma and Texas was heading our way, with almost no chance that it could miss us. Sure enough, the rain began early Sunday morning and while the temperature starting out at around 50 degrees, by the end of the race it was closer to 40 degrees with the wind howling and the rain coming down in buckets. For a good portion of the first part of the race the wind and rain came from behind, but when we changed directions at about the 7-mile mark in the race, heading back towards the Germantown Athletic Club, the 10- to 20-mile-per-hour wind was magnified by the cold rain meeting us head-on, and I began to question the sanity of runners in general, and me in particular.
But this was a big race for me. It was the Southern Half Marathon Championship for the RoadRunners Clubs of America, but more importantly for me, it was the 8th race in the 9-race Running Journal Grand Prix series. All runners who ran this race and also the Little Rock Half Marathon two weeks ago would receive double points for their best finish. Currently I’m in first place in the 55-59 age division. Our friend Jerry Sofley, also from Gastonia, made the trip with us and is currently in first place in the 60-64 age division. In Memphis we met up with another friend we’ve gotten to know from the Grand Prix, Don Vining, from Georgia, who currently has a commanding lead in the Grand Prix in the 65-69 age group. I’m happy to say that things worked out for all three of us — Don and I both finished 1st in our age group and Jerry finished 2nd, giving us all a big lead going into the last race on Memorial Day Weekend, the Cotton Row Run in Huntsville, Alabama. In addition, my wife Linda finished 1st out of 11 runners in her age group in the 5k, and Don’s girlfriend finished 1st in her age group as well.
I was happy with my final time of 1:35:53. It wasn’t my fastest half marathon ever, but certainly not my slowest either. It definitely provided me with a little more data in figuring out my heart rate training. Since I began monitoring my heart rate during races I had been able to maintain a heart rate of 166 beats per minute throughout all of my races, no matter what distance (5k, 10k, half marathon) except in last month’s Valentine Run in Black Mountain, where I was never able to climb to 166 bpm. It happened again in this race. When I reached about 163 bpm it seemed to be all the gas I had, so instead of pushing it I decided to just stay at the more comfortable slower heart rate. When I checked my Garmin after the race I had averaged 162 throughout the race instead of the usual 166.
From the race logo I had expected Germantown to be in a rural setting with lots of farms and horses, but from what I saw it’s more of a busy suburb of Memphis filled with expensive homes, lots of shopping, and wide streets that are great for running. Jerry and I drove most of the course on Saturday and it was really a beautiful area. On Sunday, of course, with the miserable weather it was hard to appreciate it as much, but maybe we’ll make it back next year for an encore in hopefully better weather.
Race Rating
8 – 1-10  Website (Information, results, registration, photo links, etc.)
8 – 1-10  Awards (Quality of medals, trophies, etc.) (1 to 10) ($6,000+ in prize money)
8 – 1-10  Awards Presentation (PA system, winning times, etc.) (1 to 10)
7 – 1-10  Food for Race Participants (1 to 10) (Brunswick Stew, etc.)
8 – 1-10  T-Shirts (1 to 10 with 5 being average) (Brooks Tech short-sleeve)
6 – 4/6   Part of Race Series (Grand Prix, etc.) (6=Yes and 4=No) (Running Journal GP)
5 – 0/5   Professional Photography (5=Yes and 0=No)
6 – 4/6   Chip Timing (6=Yes and 4=No)
7 – 3/7   Certified Course (by USA Track & Field) (7=Yes and 3=No)
8 – 1-10  Course (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
7 – 1-10  Parking (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
6 – 1-10  Entertainment (1 to 10 with 5 being average)
10 – 0-10  Age Groups (10 if 5-year groups; 0 if 10-year groups)
5 – 0/5   Indoor Shelter from Elements (0 if none; 5 if provided)
7  - 1-10  Bathroom Facilities
0-10  Other
TOTAL – 106

Comments

Post a Comment

Recent Popular Posts

Race #214 - Mount Holly Springfest 5k - Mount Holly, NC - 05/04/13

Image
For the first time since last July I ran a 5k in under 21 minutes (20:58) so I was happy to know I still had a sub-21 in me at the age of 61. This race is just a few miles from my home and one of the few Gaston County races I had never run. It's a smallish race with 156 finishers this year, but there are a lot of good things about races this size: parking nearby, not losing your friends, a more casual starting line, etc. As I've been doing lately, I'll go light on the talking and let the photos tell the story since I wore my video glasses. Below is the video, followed by a few of the 100+ pictures I took. You can see all of the photos on my Facebook page. Click here for my Facebook gallery of this race. It was frigid for a race in May, when we expect springtime temperature. Bill refused to leave his car to warm up before the race. This was the first race I've been in with Dianne Allen in a while. She's coming back strong after an injury kep
Read more

Race #136 - The Scream! Half Marathon - Jonas Ridge, NC - 07/16/11

Image
The T-shirt says, The Scream! Half Marathon is "13.1 Miles of Pure Hill!" That's not entirely true. While there are probably 8 or 9 miles of downhill that will make your quads and calves scream with delight (or possibly horror), there's enough uphill to bring you back to reality. For me, every time we hit the small uphill sections they almost felt like huge mountains after getting used to all the downhill, but enough people passed me on those hills that I thought I might be in the minority. There's no doubt that the huge downhill sections helped a lot of people run their fastest half marathon time ever. I cut about a minute off my Personal Record from the 2010 Little Rock Half Marathon with a time of 1:32:11, which was 1st in the 55-59 age group and 24th overall. Honestly, I was just a little disappointed with my time since I've been running well lately and had dropped 10 pounds over the previous four weeks. I felt like there was a good chance for me to run
Read more

Race #143 - Midnight Flight 10k - Anderson, SC - 09/02/11

Image
This was my third straight year of running the Midnight Flight 10k, the first race in the Running Journal Grand Prix. After running a disappointing time of 47:07 in last year's race I hoped to redeem myself by running under 45 minutes this year. Things worked out well for me and I chopped about 4 minutes off last year's time, finishing in 43:09 (with a chip time of 43:04), finishing in 1st place in the 55-59 age group. It was a little sad not having some of the Charlotte area guys there who I've run the RJ Grand Prix with over the past two seasons, but a couple of other Charlotte runners are there this year -- Butch Holt and Louis Messina -- so we've still got some representation from the area. I'll be switching age groups on February 27, 2012, before the end of the current season, so the only points I'll get will be in races before that date. I told Linda last year that I wouldn't run this series this year, but since I'll still be eligible for point
Read more

Race #483 -- Kings Mountain Gateway Trail 5k -- Kings Mountain, NC -- 03/13/2021

Image
It's been a full year since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and with the hope that it's mostly behind us now the local races are starting to pop up along with the spring flowers. The Kings Mountain Gateway Trail is actually just over the county line in Cleveland County but this year the race marks the first entry for the Gaston County Race Series, which was canceled last year because of the virus but is being brought back this year, albeit with probably fewer races than in past seasons.  Since I'm a Gaston County resident and a runner, I've enjoyed supporting the race series and will continue to do so. During the last season (2019) of the race series I finished 2nd overall, partly due to some decent race times but more so due to showing up for pretty much every race. This year doesn't hold that much promise for me personally since I'm not running that well. Also, some of the races will be "virtual," meaning that you just run the race at a place and time of
Read more

Race #174 - New River Half Marathon - Todd, NC - 05/05/12

Image
Being a glutton for punishment, I was elated to hear the alarm go off at 3 a.m. Saturday morning. It wasn't so much the early wake-up time -- I try to get up a 4 a.m. every morning anyway. The day's punishment that I eagerly anticipated was the 13.1 miles of hills at the New River Half Marathon. I ran this race last year and it was my slowest half marathon of the year out of 13 that I ran. I remembered that there were hills but I don't think I appreciated the magnitude of the hills. There are a couple of 300-foot climbs as well as a couple of 100-foot climbs, and since I do very little hill training the results are just about what you would expect. I've always been a proponent of the run/walk method and used to incorporate regular walk breaks in every race. Over the past couple years I've mostly stopped doing that, instead trying to run the entire race without any walk breaks, at least most of the time. This race is an exception to the rule though. Last year I wal
Read more