We have officially arrived at the first race report of 2024. If everything goes according to plan, this will be the first of 13 race reports I will write this year. But I have to acknowledge that there are many things that could get in the way of that plan. 

We originally signed up for this race on something of a lark. A college acquaintance/friend of mine works for 3M and he posted a code offering a discount for the race. He and his wife are both runners who used to live in Austin. It was actually through his wife that I wound up connected to my running coach, who also lives in Austin. 

I wasn’t sure that Jp was going to be excited about traveling for another half marathon (this was long before our grand plan emerged) but I did a little research and discovered that his favorite basketball team, the Boston Celtics, were going to be in the area at the same time. He has a goal of seeing a game in every NBA arena and it’s always nicer if that game involves the Celtics. So I presented him with my hairbrained scheme to do the race and see the Celtics play in both Houston and Dallas. He pretty readily agreed. There was lots of craziness that resulted from those pieces of the trip. I’ll cover those in a separate post. Right now I’m going to focus on the race.

I selected a hotel for us that was just a couple of blocks from the start line. That allowed us to not worry about parking, drive time or other associated logistics on race morning. Instead, we rolled out of bed, got ready and were able to just walk up to the start line. 

The weather on race day was unusually cold for Texas, with temps in the low to mid-30s at race time. Thankfully this weather had been predicted so we had packed accordingly. The low temps meant that we didn’t want to head to the start line overly early but both of us wanted to get there with enough time to find everything, wait in the inevitable port-a-potty lines and otherwise feel ready to start. When we went down to the hotel lobby we found it packed with other runners also trying to avoid the cold for as long as felt reasonable. 

The 3M Half is a point-to-point race that bills itself with the tagline “downhill to downtown.” Unlike other point-to-point races that I have done that included shuttle busses either to the start or finish in the race fee, you have to purchase shuttle tickets for this one if you want a ride back to the start. I purchased those tickets as part of our race registration and I think it was a good move since they apparently sold out. We didn’t have a second car that we could park at the finish and I think getting an Uber or Lyft after the race would have been tough.

Following the instructions of my coach, CC, I did a mile warm-up run before the race started. Given the cool temps, that was both nice for getting me started physically and for helping me stay warm while I waited. That apparently also put me in the port-a-pot lines at a good time as they were much, much longer when I finished than it had been when I joined the line. 

And for those who are wondering about my poop issues and how I was feeling about that situation for the race I have good news. I requested a GI appointment and started doing some research. In my research, I ran across the mention of some folks having sugar sensitivity and that triggering serious urgency issues. I’d developed a serious gummy bear addiction over the preceding year. I stumbled upon a brand of gummy bears that I just find to be substantially better than any others I have ever had. We started keeping a big bag of them around. And working from home it was easy to grab a handful multiple times per day. When I saw that mention something clicked and I decided to try cutting out the gummy bears. This was less than a week prior to race day but it seemed to have an immediate impact. So by race day, I felt pretty confident that I’d be ok. And I was.

Ironically for a race that bills itself as being downhill, the start line was actually on an uphill. We got into the corrals and hung out for a little bit before I heard someone shout my name. CC was running it with a friend and she came over to give me a hug of encouragement before we got started. Apparently, the running community in Austin also knows her; I heard the startline announcer say “Hi CC” as she passed by. This race has a lot of pace groups so I had planned to keep the 2:20 pacer in my sights as I ran. Since I use the Galloway method (run/walk intervals) running with a pacer generally doesn’t work for me, but I could still use them as a gauge of whether or not I was on track. I got into the corral right by those pacers but somehow I was quite a bit behind them crossing the start line. 

I spent the first couple of miles feeling stressed about being behind my target pace group and hustling a bit to catch up. Once I caught them, I found that it was hard for me to stay with them. Because of running intervals, I tend to leapfrog people for a while. When that’s one or two people it’s fine but when it’s a large pace group, it gets challenging. So I gave up and just ran my race which actually had me pull ahead of them. I thought I might see them again later in the race but I never did. 

So I just cruised along. I was certainly working but I didn’t feel like I was at risk of falling apart as time went on. There were some dedicated folks out there cheering who I saw multiple times (at least 3) along the course but this race doesn’t have big crowds out cheering. I will also say that I didn’t find the course particularly scenic. Not all races are by any means, but I have felt compelled to stop and take pictures during some races. I didn’t during this one. I did find myself needing to pee part way through the race but I wasn’t willing to lose significant time to do it. So I passed some aid stations without stopping because there were clear lines of people waiting. Eventually, I found one with no line and was able to pop in and out pretty quickly.

This is a race that also has bands along the course. I was expecting bands more like what I’ve experienced in a RockNRoll series race before but this was decidedly different. There was a mix of genres and styles. It turned out that my favorite was actually the very first one – a taiko drum group. The drum beats were somehow very inspiring both approaching the group and as I moved past. There was also some unwelcome music on the course. I usually have on Shokx headphones that allow me to listen to a book or music while I run but also make it so that I can hear course marshalls and other things around me. For some reason, I couldn’t get my headphones to start at the beginning of the race. I assumed that the battery had somehow gotten drained during our travel and stopped trying. There are often folks in races and on trails who decide that everyone around them should enjoy their music. It’s a pet peeve of mine. And this race included a doozy. There was a girl who ran near me for multiple miles and had on a small backpack with a pretty sizeable wireless speaker in it through which she was blasting her music. Her music choices weren’t terrible but I was annoyed by it. My brief restroom break allowed her to get just enough in front of me that I couldn’t hear her music anymore and I was glad of it.

As we approached the finish line we had a short segment of running through the UT campus. That was pretty cool. After that, we hit the final uphill that brought us to the finish. I’d been watching my pace throughout the race and felt pretty confident that I was going to hit my goal time of 2:20. There were times in the race when I thought I might even manage a 2:15 but I never caught that pace group and it was clear to me that I would NOT manage that as we ran through the campus. As I crossed the finish my watch said I’d made it but I knew I wouldn’t fully trust it until I saw the official results. The race clock said I didn’t make it but I knew I started my race well after the gun went off so I knew that wasn’t a real measure. 

I found Jp waiting for me at the finish and we made our way through the chute collecting water and snacks along the way. We then headed to the gear check pickup. I had dropped a jacket at the start of the race knowing that I’d likely be cold on the way back to the hotel post race. I was glad I did. As we made our way to the gear check and then the bus we passed the PR gong that the race puts up. I had my official results 2:17:55 so you better believe I rang that gong!

We didn’t have to wait long to get on a shuttle bus back to the hotel. The shuttles were school busses so nothing glamorous. The ride seemed to take forever – so long in fact that Jp started joking about whether we’d all been abducted in the plot of some b movie. Alas, that was not the case but our driver made a U-turn at one point, took a loop through a parking lot and just generally didn’t seem to know where he was going. We were thrilled when we arrived back at the start line. The walk back to the hotel from the bus was miserable and cold. Thankfully we were able to get ourselves warmed up once we got inside and got our wet clothes off. Unfortunately, it seemed that everyone in the hotel was taking a post-race shower so instead of the hot shower I’d hoped for I got a quick tepid rise off.

Overall this felt like a great start to a year of crazy running. I’ll be back in late February for a race report on the Atlanta half.