rock and roll half arizona

Race post!

You know the race went well when the post starts out with a Rocky pose.

It was a brisk morning in Tempe - around 42 degrees. I was originally slated to start in Corral 6 (there were at least 16 corrals, I think), but I knew I'd be a little faster than anticipated.

I kept warm by walking around ASU's campus. And by taking selfies.

The start! I've never actually been in this big of a race so it was kind of neat to always be running with people the whole time.

And then the race kicked off! I wasn't quite sure if 1:45 was realistic but I was feeling good for the first 10k.  However, I knew hills were approaching near the 8 mile mark, and they did not disappoint. Mile 9 was basically a hill where you are running between two mountains - I've actually driven on this road but forgot about that until I reached the top - and you looked down on the entire city of Phoenix.  Also, playing at the top of the hill was an African drum band and I narrowly avoided being hit by one of their drum sticks.  There were actually local bands around every mile marker - that was pretty neat.

Then, down the hill we went. I knew I had to pick up the pace here since I was a little slower on the uphill.  At mile 10, I calculated what I needed to reach 1:45 and it was within reach - as long as I had sub 8 minute miles the last 5k.

Which, I was able to do! Thankfully there was a bit of elevation loss to help me out with this though it was not all straight downhill..it was hilly. 

Then we crossed over our final bridge, and saw and heard my friends shouting for me, and then booked it to the finish line, finishing in 1:45:45!

Stars!

Overall, this was a pretty fun race - extremely well organized, entertaining, scenic, and tons of goodies that were given away. 

The Rock and Roll Series actually assesses your results and gives you badges. This one is my favorite :P

No, I did not have any seafood though..

Afterwards, we got some coffee at Smooth Coffee near downtown Phoenix (extremely shady part of Phoenix for the record, but a really neat coffee place), and then headed over to a Seafood Buffet.  I was having breathing hard for a bit after the race, and coughing often - which is normally how I feel when I run hard at Elevation.  But I felt much better after eating even though I wasn't hungry.

I'll take it.

It was definitely a great race day, time to recover for a day or so, and then back at it for Marathon training!