Seabrook 1/2 Marathon Relay - mile by mile

Mile 1 -- Since the trails are so narrow, the start began on the street instead of trails. (I think this made my leg slightly longer -- according to my Garmin, I did 6.6 miles instead of 6.55!) We were on the street for about 3/4 of a mile before we hit the trails. There seemed to be a lot of walkers & I realized I was going too fast for me. I tried a couple of times to slow down, but that's so hard to do when feeling good!

Trivia -- Who is Casper the Friendly Ghost's Girlfriend? (Wendy)

Time - 12:08

Mile 2 was along trails that were mainly crushed granite, but it was much nicer (smoother, not as much movement) than the Memorial park trails. I went to the first water stop which also had gatorade, oranges, banana and even oreos! LOTS of volunteers. Aside from them, there were very few spectators. The trail was crowded, but not too bad. People did mainly stay to the right (except for the ones with headphones! I've decided I agree with the movement to ban them from races). Reall funny thing overheard -- A lady said to the lady she was walking with "Do you know how many calories Denna Kastor eats every day?" She, I and one other person all replied immediately "5000!" Obviously, we all watched Spirit of the Marathon. I pretty much knew the first runners would head back towards me somewhere on loop two, and it was until I was at my mile 1.7 .

Trivia -- What color is Spock's blood? (Green)

Time - 14:16

Mile 3 was super nice - through the woods and then on to the park on Galveston Bay. Since this is close to the loop around point, I met a lot of runners going the opposite direction. It seemed like the people around 9 min/mile were the friendliest. At this water stop, in addition to water & gatorade, they were giving out cold towels - that were awesome! Man, they felt so good - and stayed cold until well after the run. I almost didn't take one, thinking I didn't really need it but it was so nice and refreshing I'm glad I did. As I looped around and started passing those slower than me I advised them to get one too! We went through the grass along the water line, so I did continue walking instead of running after I finished my cup of gatorade for a while and took a few pics, I never stopped chugging along, though...

Trivia -- How many times did John Glenn orbit the earth? (Three)

Time 14:35

Mile 4 my knee really started "tweaking" bad - I know I was limping some. As I started down a side "bonus" trail I had some of my gatorade & was glad I carry water - even though there were pleanty of aid stations along the way. People were quite talkative along this little stretch. At the end of this bonus trail was yet another water stop, again fully stocked with water, gatorade, towels & I think fruit. I took a gatorade & walked while I drank it. The leader ran towards me (on his 2nd loop) at my mile 3.6, so I guess I was maintaining my slow pace at a constant speed! I was pleased to see I did the 4 miles in under an hour (54.71 min).

Trivia -- What country is Heniken from? (Netherlands)

Time - 14:12

Mile 5 I was beginning to feel tired. I had a Gu - I never did take any of that stuff during the Houston 1/2. Not sure if it helped to have it or not. I learned that in the future I'll take those things when I know a water station is nearby! Luckily on this trail, they are close & I only had about 1/2 a mile until there was a mini-stop that was just two guys with an igloo of water & gatorade. In another 1/3 mile or so we went back through the (1st, biggest) water station that we had gone through already. On this pass I noticed along with all the other offerings was a big ole jar of vaseline. Man - this marathon though of everything!

I knew it was inevitable -- I was looped by the first runner at mile 5.0. This was about the only time the trail got croweded, with us slowpokes finishing our first loop, the medimum fast group coming back out on their second loop and the speediest ones flashing past us on their way to the finish. Trivia -- Where is Harry's New York Bar located? (Paris)

Time - 14:19

Mile 6 - Although I was really tired, I was kind of wishing I had signed up for the full half (!!!!). Quite a shock from a back-of-the-packer that just got looped! But as my fun was coming to an end, I wanted to keep playing. There was still a long way to go, but I was in my little groove. My knee was really hurting and I was wishing I had remembered to put on the icy hot and take the asprin, both of which were in my race bag in the car.

Trivia -- Where is Mount Olympus? (Greece)

Time - 15:06

The last .55 mile (or .6 per my Garmin!) I was feeling really good. I noted, according to my Garmin, my 10K time would have been nicely under 1 1/2 hours, which pleased me. (1:24, I think).

I was surprised that I felt like I had some gas left, so was able to sprint it in a bit.

I saw Viv on the other side of the timing mat waiting for her chance to go and gave it all I had. We touched fingers ala ET and she was off.

I know I stopped my Garmin, but apparently I hit it again since when I looked later it was still ticking off - dang it! I remember it said my mileage was 6.6, but can't remember the time. My official time was 1:32:16, so I'll go with that.

As I stepped forward a bit, I got my medal - yea!! It is a LOT smaller than the "real" half marathon medal, but it's still pretty cool to get a medal for "just" running 6 1/2 miles (WOW -- a year ago I would have never imagined saying that!). Next year, I'm doing the full half!!

No more trivia.

Time: 8:20 (14:91 min/mile or 13.67 min/mile depending on mileage!)

Official time - 1:32:16. (14.07 min/mile @ 6.55 miles, 13.96 @6.6)

I then went to change shoes, get my running jacket and headed down to just before mile 6 to cheer on runners while watching for Viv. I really wanted to go eat, but that would just be wrong with my relay partner still out there! (I should have grabbed the slightly frozen recovery drink I had in my running bag, but didn't - duh.) So I had pleanty of time to stretch and hopefully my constant clapping gave some other runners a boost!

Viv came ripping through looking great. She said she was out of gas, but was going strong!

And she brought us in with a finish time nicely under 3 hours -- Whoopee!!

The after race food was hot off the grill -- hamburgers, chicken sandwiches and hot dogs (sadly, no beer). According to Viv she was offered a taco, but I think she hallucinated that part. There were also complimentary massages -- ahhh...