San Jose Rock and Roll Half!

First off, I haven’t downloaded any pics yet of the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon, so I’ll add those later.

A group of six of us drove down to San Jose to meet up with two other friends/runners and my sister GB. This was the first half-marathon for 5 in the group so the excitement and nervousness level was high, but good.

Upon arrival, we met up with one of my old high school friends Jon Mikelonis. I hadn’t seen Jon in about 15 years. I prodded him to run this race. He was managing to run no more than 3-4 miles maximum just a few months ago, and not only did he finish his first 13.1 miler, but he did it in a time of 1hr 44mins. That is a great time, first-timer or not, for a half! I talked with Jon after and he sounded fresh, thankful and proud, especially since his wife and two young sons got to see him cross the line! I am trying to get him to go the full 26.2 miles in December at the CIM. If you know Jon, please tell him congrats. It was great seeing you Jon and meeting your beautiful family. Two other friends from high school also ran the race, Andrew Adamson and Dave Pernez. Both of those guys did great…and hats off to Andrew for deciding to run only a few days prior.

For Kendra, I and GB, this run was in the middle of our training for the CIM. Thankfully we all finished, even with questionable health…which I’ll explain in a few, but first, Kendra did great. Her running has also come a long way. I remember when she ran her first mile with me, she was not happy at all. Now look at her, she runs 1hr 52mins and is ramping for the CIM! Great job honey! She is definitely a runner now. Now, back to that questionable health; my sis GB had an allergic reaction to something she ate the night before. It was such a bad reaction that she went into anaphylactic shock during the race! BUT…she is ok now.

So…I am running with my sister for the first time in her current running shape. Now for those of you who don’t know my sister, she is an incredible runner! Her PR in the half is 1hr 29mins and in the full is 3hrs 17mins. But those were before her being in the running shape she is in today. Before anaphylactic shock took its grip on her, we were rolling through the first 10+ miles at a 6:55 minute pace. Which for me was freakin’ A fast! A few times during those 10+ miles my sister just let it roll…..and let me just say that her top gear is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! She pulled away from me (remember we were already at a 6:55 pace) like I was standing still, no exaggeration. It was impressive and awe inspiring. Just when I thought she would drop the hammer like an AMG coming off the line, she would slow up a bit. She’d test her engine, pull away and then slow up. This was obviously because of the reaction she was feeling. Her poor blood cells were probably pumping out more white blood cells to fight the reaction, instead of the much needed red ones to make it through the race.

This is the incredible part, even though her body was shutting down, she still managed a 1:32!! Only 3 minutes off her PR. After the race her airway was getting tight, thank God benadryl did its job. As I mentioned earlier, she is fine and resting at home.

Running with my sis was an all-time experience! On my way to finishing the race she helped me PR my 10k and 12k. We held that 6:55 minute pace pretty steady, maybe varied by 3 seconds here and there. We met up with one of her training partners, Larry, at mile 7. He was running this as a workout, fyi, his half-marathon PR is something like 1hrs 10mins!

At just under mile 11, my sister tells Larry and I to go…actually she tells Larry something like this, Larry, not feeling it today, take my brother in, he wants to go sub 1:30…(meaning finish below 1hr 30 mins). So Larry looks at his Garmin watch, looks at me and says, “We have to go 6:15 to catch that time, can you go 6:15? (6min 15 sec mile splits). After the initial thought of, “Are you F^&*ING kidding me!” I say, sure thing, or I’ll die trying.

We make it through M11 – 12.5 at that time. We are now 15-20 yards behind the 1:30 pacer. Just at that time my right side cramps. It hurts, but I battle through. At mile 13, the pace group is about 75 yards in front of me. I have .1 mile left and by the grace of God I can feel the cramp subside. But my legs are burning, feeling pain shoot through my feet, Achilles, calves, hamstrings and gluteus. I stay loose and I start reeling in the 1:30 group. I can see them coming closer, 50 yards, 40 yards, 30 yards, 30, 30, 30…I can see the finish ahead…and then BAM! I see the group go 35 yards ahead, 40, 50, 60, 70, I can’t turnover fast enough. With about 100 yards to go I know I can’t catch them.

The great thing is since I am just behind the 1:30 pace group, there is no one behind me. I am running down the finishing shoot amidst thousands of cheering fans waiving my arms up and down, trying to get the crowd pumped up. Did they ever respond, the crowd, starts cheering like crazy! I’m having fun, they are powering me up and I am forgetting the pain! Now I’m taking it all in, goofing off like crazy. As I break the finish line, I do my Usain Bolt impression and lean for the tape…I look at the clock and see the finish time of 1hr 30mins 34 seconds! I PRd by eight minutes! It was incredible. Thank God and the Virgin Mother. I asked them for strength, and once again, they delivered.

Kendra also PRd; and I am happy that GB is feeling better too. One last thought as I was crossing the line, “I have a lot of work to do before the CIM in December!” It was a wonderfully blessed day.

In health and run strong! GO GB!