Small screw-ups:
1) I haven't been training for a half marathon--I've been running 6 miles a week. What was I doing trying to run a half marathon?!
2) I was registered to run a marathon the next day. (See review of marathon here.) Why was I doing a half marathon the day before a marathon?
3) I registered for this race because my friends wanted to run it. They all bailed, and I was running it alone.
Big screw-up:
I thought the race started at 8am. I got there in plenty of time to use the port-a-potty, and then realized the marathon started at 8:15 and the HALF MARATHON STARTED AT 9:30. Oh no! I needed to be at a wedding 3 hrs away at 3pm. I asked if I could start with the marathoners and run the half. Because I didn't receive a resounding NO, I started at 8:15. I will NEVER do that again. The course volunteers were mad. And after the turn-around, I was heading into oncoming marathoners, half marathoners, and 10K runners. Half of them thought I was in the lead (after getting tired of telling people that I started early, I just ran with my head down in shame) and the other half were disgusted with me. The race director, Roger Michel, caught up with me on the course, and graciously said he would make sure my time was recorded accurately and wished me luck making it to the wedding. I can't say enough about the kindness of this man.
Not only was I running alone because my friends weren't with me, but I was really running alone for the first 6.5 miles, and then I felt like a fish swimming upstream the second 6.5 miles. This must be how lonely the front runners feel.
Here is what I realized at the end of the day. If other half marathoners had seen me start early and decided to do the same, the timers would have had to deal with more of us screwing up their timing records. Ultimately, I should have been a DNS (did not start) and gone home without doing the race.
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