Race Report: PF Chang's Rock n' Roll 1/2 Marathon

My husband Zac and I headed up to Phoenix this weekend for the PF Chang’s Rock n’ Roll half marathon. Zac had been training for this event, which was his first half marathon, and his goal was just to finish. He had no running background, and followed a 2.5 month training plan. He needed something to motivate him to run regularly, so this event was it. I went ahead and signed up since I was training for Ironman Arizona anyways, and planned to use it as a training run. I decided to run with Zac the entire way to help him out and make sure he could finish well. Besides, I had never done a stand alone half marathon. I’ve done three half Ironmans, so I was wondering what it would be like to do the half marathon part on fresh legs.

We arrived at the parking area at 5:30AM, and found a great spot right across from the shuttle pick-up area. Since our race didn’t start until 8:30, we decided to hang out in the warm van rather than stand around in the cold. We used that time to get everything ready for the race and fill our water bottles. With so many people on the course we decided to just carry our own water and nutrition and skip almost all of the aid stations. During Zac’s 2 hour training run I had stuffed a bag of Clif Bloks in the zippered pocket of his water bottle holder so that he could try them out. At first he figured he could run the entire time with no electrolytes or food, but I convinced him otherwise and he tried the Bloks. They worked fine for him, so that’s what he was going to use for the race. I loaded my waist belt pouch with 3 bags of Bloks (2 for me and 1 extra for him) and my water bottle.

The most stressful thing was trying to figure out how to dress. At 5:30AM it was still dark out, so we weren’t sure how warm it would get and if it would be windy. I put on my compression shorts, running pants on over the shorts, and a long sleeved Under Armor shirt on under my Tri Girls tank top. I threw a windbreaker into my gear bag just in case. I also put on my fleece jacket and gloves to keep warm before the event. Zac put his long running shorts on and his pants over the shorts and a long sleeved jersey on. He also put on his Elvis socks, since this was the Rock n’ Roll race after all. I let him borrow my race belt that I use for tris for this race so that he had somewhere to put his number without attaching it to his shirt.

At 7AM we decided to get in the line for the shuttles. It was a pretty long line, but it seemed to be moving along. Our feet got cold waiting in line, and I was wishing I had put plastic baggies on my feet inside my shoes. We finally got on the tour bus which was heated inside and felt SO good. We were able to thaw out on the bus ride from Tempe to downtown Phoenix. 13 miles sure does look like a long way when you drive the distance.

We got off the bus, and by then the sun had come up and warmed up the air a bit. We found the UPS trucks and made our final costume decisions. I decided not to go with the windbreaker and run in my pants and long sleeves, and Zac opted for shorts and long sleeves and no windbreaker. This turned out to be perfect for both of us. The UPS trucks were alphabetical by last name, so we dropped our bags and headed to our corral. I ran into Anne along the way and wished her luck, as she was also getting ready for the half marathon.

We were in corral 18, so we stopped by the porta potties near the area. They had plenty of potties, so the line wasn’t too long. We waited about 15 minutes or so and decided to do our stretching then. Then we got in our corral and waited. They told us there were 38,000 people doing the races today. Amazing! The race was running a bit late (about 30 min behind schedule) so we stood in the crowd in our corral. I was fine with that since that meant 30 more minutes of sunshine to warm us up. The only thing was our feet got really cold just standing around waiting. They finally started the corrals moving, and we slowly moved forward. Finally it was our turn to go. We crossed the timing mats, started our watches, and were off!

My feet felt like blocks of ice and I couldn’t feel how my feet were moving during the strides. I was hoping they would warm up soon. The first 3 miles flew by, mostly because we were trying to get warm. Our feet would hurt and sting as they thawed but finally we could feel them again. We passed quite a few walkers just in those first few miles. The first few miles also had religious protesters yelling at us. The first big sign one guy was holding that we passed said “You are headed towards hell.” That cracked me up. I was thinking “No, were not doing the full marathon. Besides, we’re going to the finish line, which is heaven!”

My job was to pace Zac and make sure he didn’t go to fast or slow. He did his training runs at 13 minute miles, but I told him he’d go faster in the race and made a goal of 12 min miles for him. I ran with my Garmin 301 and made sure we kept on pace. The first few miles we went faster than the goal pace, but that allowed us to get past the walking groups. They had bands along the way every mile and a half or so, which was really cool. They also had little kid cheer squads out to encourage the runners. After a few miles Zac started to rely on the bands. “I need another band to get me through” he would say. We always waved and cheered for the bands as we passed by. It was a nice thing to look forward to and help pass the miles.

With so many people we never got clear road where we weren’t around a ton of people. We just weaved and bobbed our way through the crowds. We seemed to be passing a lot more people than were passing us, so that was cool. At the beginning we ran through the aid stations, which were really crowded. We tried to stay in the middle of the road to get through quickly. We had our water bottles, so we didn’t need to stop. I practiced my nutrition for Ironman, which was a Clif Blok every 20 minutes, which would give me about 100 calories per hour. I was also wearing my heart rate monitor, just out of curiosity and because I always wear it for training. We were pushing the pace and running 11.5 minute miles, so my heartrate was higher in Zone 3. I normally try to do my training runs in Zone 2, but this allowed me to try eating at a higher zone and see how the stomach reacted. I decided that I wasn’t going to wear my heartrate monitor in Ironman, because I would probably just get hung up on the numbers if it was higher than it was supposed to be. Sometimes too much data is a bad thing, especially if you over-analyze.

Zac did good constantly sipping water from his bottle and eating a Blok every 15 to 20 minutes or when he felt he needed one. I was glad he listened to me and ate the Bloks, because I really didn’t want him to bonk in his first race. A week before the race he had gotten a cramp in his left calf. For the first part of the race his leg was ok, but then at about half way through it started to hurt. I just tried to keep him positive and keep him on pace. We were going faster than the training runs, so that was probably also bothering his leg.

This was definitely a different race for me, because I’m used to being out there by myself and being alone in my head and paying attention to every single body signal. This race I was more concerned about Zac, and my head was more about what he was feeling and what info he needed to keep pushing him forward. I’d tell him when the next mile marker was in view, and he’d reply with “Sweet!” I’d tell him how good he was doing and how proud of him I was and glad that he was doing the race with me (all while trying not to cry). Throughout the race he was doing great keeping a consistent pace and not walking. I told him it was ok if he wanted to stop and stretch, but he wanted to keep going and not stop. I told him Miles 8 – 10 were “The Gauntlet” because that’s where most people start walking. But he made it through just fine. I think Mile 11 was the worst for him. We got into some hills and slowed a bit, and his leg was really bothering him on the uphills. I kept telling him that the hills weren’t that bad, and that they were short. By this point he was out of water, so I gave him some from my bottle, and he picked up a few cups at the aid station.

We started the crossing at the Mill Avenue bridge, and Zac was yelling “Why can’t we finish at the beach park?!” which is where all my tris up there finished. We rounded the corner onto Rio Salado, and the final band there was playing Led Zepplin songs. “Crank the Zep! I need the Zep!” Zac yelled, and then started singing along. I don’t think he remembers singing to the band. But I’m sure he’s going to have similar stories about me doing or saying strange things in Ironman. I checked my watch, and it said 2:26. “We can break 2:30 if we push the pace” I told Zac. “Man, that wasn’t even a goal. My goal was 2:45.” I told him to just keep going and kept telling him the tenths of a mile that were left. Finally the finish line came into view, and Zac started sprinting. I tried to keep up because we wanted to cross the line together. At the last second we held hands and put our hands up in the air as we crossed the line at 2:29:22. Just under 2:30! The final sprint spiked my heart rate to 201 and I hit the redline. I had to walk it off to try to bring it down but it felt stuck. I breathed deeply trying to slow down, and was dry heaving a bit but never actually puked. I grabbed some water and finally started to calm down. We took our chips off, got the picture taken, got some food and free sandals, grabbed our gear from the UPS trucks, and headed back to the van.

Zac was walking funny after the race but felt great about exceeding his goal. We went much faster than I ever expected, so I was really proud. He said he had fun and would maybe want to do the race again to try to better his time. But he had no desire to do a full marathon. After that race, neither did I. I know it sounds strange to be doing Ironman and not want to do a stand alone marathon, but for some reason that’s how I feel. I like training for all 3 sports and not focusing on just one sport.

So Zac is now done with running and will be shifting his training to mountain biking to get ready for the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo race that he’s doing with our co-ed Tri Girls team. I’m continuing on with Week 7 of Ironman training. I hope he’ll still join me on some of my training runs, because it sure makes the time go by quicker when you have someone else there.

I'm also glad that I didn't have any IT band issues for this race. I was a little worried about that. But I did my stretches before and after the race, and it never bothered me. I can't tell you how glad I am of that, because the last thing I wanted was to develop an injury during IM training. So it looks like the key is the stretches before and after my running and biking workouts.

We had lots of fun at this race. I really liked the rock n’ roll theme with all the bands along the route. We had a great time and thought it was well organized for 38,000 participants. I can’t imagine organizing such a huge event! They had tons of volunteers, and the cities were nice enough to block off and allow us to run on a wide portion of the road. Aid stations always had lots of stuff. For such a large event it does get crowded, but we were never in any huge lines for anything, and were able to get our stuff and leave pretty quickly after the event. Getting out of the parking lot wasn’t even that tough. For a first half marathon, it was a great venue.