Pittsburgh review

First of all, I got to listen to Bill Rodgers (Boston Billy) speak at the Expo for a little bit on Friday. My sister later called my mom to tell her that I was like a little kid excited about Santa, staring at him from the audience like he was a rock star. Well, he is!!

Okay, so Sunday morning I woke up at 4:30- after hardly sleeping at all the night before. My sister, bro-in-law and the kids got up right after I did and we were actually pulled out of the driveway by 5am, which was the goal. I only at a banana and part of a Cliff bar at the house, and then munched on fruit snacks and drank water in the car. We were downtown and parked before 5:30. There was literally no traffic. Nothing at all like the Seattle marathon. So, we had two hours to kill. Ouch. We wandered around a little bit and took some pictures by the Philips Respironics sign. Of course, I was wearing my BC gear!

I finally went to check my gear around 6:30 and then hit up the porta-potties. OMG. I have never stood in line for a bathroom for so long. I probably got in line at 6:45 or 6:50 and when the race started at 7:30, I was just finishing up. So, needless to say, I didn’t get a chance to warm up or stretch. Not good.

But, I was there, it was a pretty warm day, and there was nothing else to do but run through this strange city, without my iPod. (When I crossed the chip mats, I happen to look to my left and saw Bill Rodgers- I kind of contemplated running over to him and shaking his hand, but thought better of it).

Overall, the course was pretty good. It was crowded of course for about the first two miles and then spread out nicely. However, around mile 3, both of my IT bands and my right knee started aching so badly that I thought I would have to drop out. So, I didn’t get to look around as much as I wanted to, I was focusing on gritting my teeth and not stepping in any potholes. It definitely wasn’t a tough course for a half, a few rollers, but nothing any Seattleite couldn’t handle. :)

It started raining on me around mile 10 or 11- by that point I was having to walk some to save my poor knees. The wind was coming in pretty good, so after I crossed the third bridge and I only had less than a mile to I had to stop and put my arm warmers back on.

It was my second best half marathon time, but I was still pretty disappointed with it. Oh well.