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Monday, September 14, 2015

Pacing At The Pocatello Half Marathon

When I miscalculated my marathon count, it was clear that I was going to have to drop Pocatello from my race calendar if I wanted Arkansas Traveller 100 to be my 100th marathon/ultra.

I love the Pocatello marathon and was pretty bummed to have to drop it. Then out of the blue I saw a Facebook post from the fine folks at RYR Pacers that they were in need of a pacer for the Pocatello Half Marathon.

This was great! I have never run the half in Pocatello and this was a way that I could still run and help others reach their goals, so I volunteered!

My job was to pace the 2:20 group. This is a small race so I had a few folks with me at the start, but they were strong and left me about half way in. I was scared that I would catch them later, but I never did. Yay!

The weather was perfect for this race this year. Warm, but not hot like it can be in Pocatello.

I was staying on pace, until about mile 6 when I saw a marathoner in distress. She was walking, but she said she thought needed a medic. By this point in the race, people had spread out, so there is no way I was going to leave her alone before I knew what was going on with her, so I walked with her until we reached the aid station less than 1/4 mile away.



It didn't take me long at all to get back on my pace. In fact I made up a little too much time, but settled back on pace quickly. I still didn't have anyone with me, but folks would try to keep up or speed up when I passed them.



The only issue I had with pacing was that the mile markers were set out for the marathon, but not the half marathon. For instance, the mile marker would say "Marathon 15 miles, Half Marathon 1.9". When our pace bands are written for round miles, it was hard to know if you were on pace. I did the best I could trying to stay with in a few seconds, but did get nervous that I would have to make up all those .1's at the end.

Eventually it all worked out and I came in at 2:19:47.



I am already registered for Pocatello Marathon next year as they just rolled my entry fee over for pacing.

If you want a great Idaho race, this is the one! Best swag and post race food for the money! I paid $45 for the marathon by registering early.

1 comment:

Jessica I said...

You look so amazing! This is definitely a great race to do.