The Race
I’ll come out and say it, the half marathon distance is not
my favorite. Why? Because the half
marathon is short enough to make it a long run, yet long enough to beat you up
when you run it at your maximum (faster than usual) potential. So far, this is my 2nd Half
marathon race. Why did I run it if I
don’t particularly like the distance?
Because it would be a good measure of where I was in my training (and of
course, which runner doesn’t like the adrenaline from the race).
The Buffalo Stampede is a small race with less than 300 in
the half marathon field (there was also a 5K).
I chose to run it because it was hosted in my current city of College
Station, Tx, so no travel was necessary.
Proceeds went to the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History, so I
considered it a good cause.
I was very pleased with the race itself. There were plenty of Porta-Johns at the start
of the race and the race director was clear with all instructions. The course itself was properly staffed with
police or volunteers and aid stations with water and Gatorade. I will point out that the aid stations were
just a small table with 2-4 volunteers.
This did not affect me at all because I was in the front of the pack,
but I can imagine that the aid stations got congested when the bulk of the
runners passed by. The course was also
an out and back route with a cone as the turnaround marker at mile 6.5. During some portions of the course, we were
only allowed to run on the shoulder of the road. I thought that this would become a problem
because runners in both directions would have to fit in the small shoulder, but
it wasn’t a problem at all. The course wasn’t
very scenic at all, but what do you expect from a small town. If all you are looking for is a cheap, well-organized
race with timed chips, a finisher’s medal, and a t-shirt, this is your race.
My Racing Report
I arrived at the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History
about half an hour before the start. The
temperature was perfect at around 60F and the start was scheduled for
7:30. I did the usual before heading out
for the start line, i.e. restroom, hydration, stretching, and nutrition. As I headed to the start line, I noticed a
few familiar faces. I recognized an
A&M track athlete, a H.S. track athlete who had previously won the BCS Half
Marathon (and won this race), and most noticeably, there was a 12 year old
girl. The little girl caught my
attention because I had recently read an article written about her. She is a very good runner and has been known
to finish races in first place (12 year old girl - article).
I looked at her and I thought to myself, there is no way she could beat me.
The gun was fired and we started running. I was in the front of the pack with about 10
runners in front of me, including the little girl who took off at a very fast
pace. I knew I had to race smart,
because historically I tend to go out too fast on the first mile and tend to
burn out. I ran my first mile in 5:56, which was a little faster than I wanted,
but I was feeling good. For the next
couple of miles I was able to pass a couple of runners, but the one I could not
catch up to was the little girl. I
eventually caught up to her at mile 4 and passed her, but no, this did not make
me feel any better. How can such a young,
short girl be running at a slightly slower pace than me? I was probably running at 6:40min pace, while
she kept a 7:00min pace. After passing
her, the 2nd aid station was supposed to be nearby, but either it
wasn’t set up yet, or I just completely missed it.
At around mile 5, a super cute girl caught up to me and
passed me. I tried to keep up and maintain
the gap, but then I remembered myself to run my own race and be patient. Soon thereafter, I finally got water. About a mile later I got to the turnaround
point and headed back. I tried to count
how many racers were in front of me, but I lost count and just kept
running. My plan was to turn around and
pick up the pace a little bit. I did so.
I soon caught up to a guy and shortly after caught up to cute girl and
passed her. The remainder of the race
was pretty dull. I passed one more guy,
but after that, no one else was within reach, so my goal was to keep my place
and try not to get caught. There seemed
to be some sort of Model T car parade, because almost a hundred cars were
passing by honking and waving.
I crossed the finish line at 1:28:27, making this my new
PR. I also finished 10th
overall and ended up getting 3rd in my division. It was pretty awesome.
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| Left: 3rd Place Division Medal. Right: Finisher's Medal |
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| Map of route (Nike+ software) |
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| Splits (Nike+ software) |
Hope you enjoyed this short report. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion and
wrote this primarily to share my experience with you. If you are deciding whether to run this race
or not, I’d say do it!
