My First Half Marathon – It Pays To Grow Old

Wow, I really haven’t been posting in a long time.  I didn’t realize that I never recapped my first half marathon.  I think the first race of every distance is such a heady experience.  And of course, it’s a guaranteed PR! 

Earlier this year, I signed up for the Alexian Brothers Half Marathon that is run in the evening of July 20^th.  But as my training distances extended, I thought “I am going to be ready to run a half long before July 20^th” and I signed up for the Inaugural Fox River Trail Half Marathon on May 12^th, Mother’s Day.  Besides being nearly ready, this impulsive decision was pushed along by someone on the Bolingbrook Fun Run Club (BFRC) posting that there was a Groupon available at something like $40.  Not much more expensive than most of the 5Ks.  So a bunch of us signed up and nothing….not even an email confirmation from the organizer.  A few weeks went by, and still nothing.  At that point, one of the women in BFRC called the organizer who said “we will send a confirmation email sooner or later”…more time went past and still nothing.  Meanwhile, I made the mistake of Googling the name and organization of the race organizer, Dean Reinke and Reinke Sports Group, and found out that these folks are kind of notorious for poor communication, not well supported races and even occasionally cancelling at the last minute and not

refunding money.  Needless to say, I started to worry about how this race was going to go.

As race day approached, we finally received an email that just said “you’re registered.”  That was better than nothing, but didn’t relieve a lot of my concern.  It didn’t help that the night before packet pick-up and email came out saying “we need volunteers for packet pickup” and packet pickup was scheduled for a two-hour window at a local hotel.  We have so many running stores in the area and they ALWAYS handle packet pickups – what better way to get people into the store?  Yet, Reinke Sports couldn’t get a store to do this?  Packet pickup was uneventful but the promised technical shirt for half marathon participants was not to be.  Instead, a regular cotton t-shirt was given out.  Personally, I like the cotton t-shirts to wear around afterwards with jeans but the hype for the race was for a technical shirt.  However, the fact that packet pick-up happened helped qualm my fears that the race might not occur.

Mother’s Day turned out to be a bright, chilly morning (temperatures in the 40’s.)  BFRC met at a nearby pancake house and hung out together before the race started.  As anticipated, Reinke Sports group’s support was minimal.  First, there were only two port-a-potties for over 200 half marathoners and an even larger 5K field.  Many runners were still lined up when the race started.   Second, there was no starting mat, the starting line was just a stripe of duct tape across the street.  Even worse, the starting line was not where the finish line was and there was no one directing people to the starting line.  Yikes!  I only found the starting line by asking one of the two or three people associated with the race where it was.  Once the race was underway, things got better (until afterwards.)  The course, which followed the Fox River Trail from Aurora to Batavia and back, was absolutely lovely on a spring morning.  The trees were finishing leafing out, flowers were blooming, fish were jumping in the river and I saw a number of beautiful birds including a Bluebird and an Oriole.  I carried my own water but there appeared to be enough water stops and port-a-potties on the route.  I started running with Lorraine, one of the other women in the BFRC, and ran for about 5 minutes before breaking into a run 70 sec./ walk 50 sec. routine for the remainder of the run.  Poor Lorraine, our overall pace was about the same and we continually ran past each other depending upon where I was in my run walk cycle.  At one point, I asked her if she was ok with it and she said “run your own race”, so I did and finished in 2:39.  A PR!  Well, it was my first Half.  Not only that, but it pays to grow old as I was the first woman in my age group.   The little Lucite age group award means a lot to me.

Reinke Sports group had advertised a party afterwards with lots of food and music.  Guess what, by the time I was done, the food was all gone and the music was a guy with a boom box.  Oh, and if I had come in just a bit later, there wouldn’t have been any finishers medals left as they gave them out to the 5K finishers.  I had a great day but it wasn’t because of Reinke Sports group.   I might run this one again but only if there’s a discount coupon.  I suggest that Mr. Reinke team up with a charity and make this a real event. 

My first Half is under my belt.  I have the Alexian Bros. Half in July and then the Oregon Wine Country Half on Labor Day weekend in Carlton, OR.  Then the next 1^st, the Chicago Marathon, a guaranteed PR!!