Not Fun "Fun Run" (aka RNR San Antonio marathon race review)

The year I ran the Chicago marathon and they cancelled it midway through the race, the police helicopters were flying over the course making the announcement, and what they said is: "the marathon has been cancelled; participants are instructed to walk toward the finish; buses are being dispersed; again the marathon is cancelled, it is a fun run."

And I remember how not fun that "fun run" was (of course, I was already past mile 20, so I didn't have far to go to the finish).

Well, the Rock and Roll San Antonio Marathon 2011 was a similar not fun "fun run" for me. It was just over 80 degrees when I finished, one person died right after finishing, overall, the race reminded me a lot of that Chicago 2007 disaster, but at least it wasn't cancelled midway through.

It was low to mid 60s at the start and foggy because it was so humid. Ugh. But with the cloud cover, I decided to start off on pace and hold it as long as I could. As always, the RNR races have lots of corrals, and at least among the front ones, most of them are pretty good -- it means when you start running, almost everyone around you is going the same pace, so there's minimal weaving. Except there were a few women in my corral who clearly were planning to finish the half in what was the marathon goal time for the rest of us -- as soon as our corral was released, they started off at a very slow shuffle and I heard several people say not so nice things to them -- they really were completely in the wrong corral and should not have done that.

I made it about 5k before I started to slow down. The first few miles were fairly ugly -- running under some highway and stuff before getting to the Alamo, which was really cool.

This course has the full and the half run together through about mile 10.5, then the halfers turn to finish, and the full goes on.

As always, completely disheartening. I saw the numbers in the paper today -- almost 24,000 runners, just over 19,000 of them doing the half. So along the course at mile 6, spectators are shouting things like "almost halfway."

Count that as reason # 4,831 why I prefer races like Boston, Marine Corps, NY, St. George, etc. (heck, even Chicago) where it is just the full marathon running the course.

I get that the half is a popular distance and RNR is all about making money, but it makes for a less fun marathon experience.

By mile 8, I was doing the math in my head to figure out what my finish time would be if I just walked the rest of the race.

And I was seriously considering turning off with the half marathon people. When we got to the split, it seemed like everyone around me (even some people with full marathon bibs), turned to do the half, and very few of us continued on.

Have I mentioned this course kind of sucks? The first few miles are ugly, then there are some pretty good miles basically from the Alamo to the halfway mark (though you're basically just running down "main street usa" filled with chain businesses and some fairly sketchy tire stores, etc.). A couple neighborhood miles that are good, but after about halfway, it's pretty ugly. At one point we were running past a refinery for about half a mile it seemed. Are you kidding me? Just hideous. There was a good section of the full that was near the missions and it was a bit like running in a park (albeit a park with little shade).

But overall, very blah course (and keep in mind, this was my third year running the full in SA, so I was prepared for it).

I took a bathroom break just after the halfway mark, and it pretty much went downhill from there. The sun was out in full force, and it was getting so hot.

There were more hills than I remembered in the second half, including one awful section where you run about half a mile down this 5-6 lane road (Military Road), and then u-turn and run back up it -- of course no shade anywhere to be found. One more example of the poor course choice.

I basically kept running the entire time. I walked a couple water stops, and I think I took an old-school walk break during mile 22.

I had worn my brand new shoes, and fortunately that worked out well.

But I was barely moving it seemed from about mile 20 on. Very, very slow, surrounded by people moving at similar paces.

We linked back up with the half course just before mile 24, and that was also disheartening. At that point, there is a stream of walkers to your left, and it just looks so much easier.

If I'm honest with myself, given the weather particularly, I probably deserved my crappy finish time. My training this season was pretty lackluster. When I pulled my soleus, I cut my mileage and cross-training down a lot. When my soleus healed, I never picked it back up the way I should have. I was carrying a few extra pounds on race day.

But wow, given the weather, I'm so glad I hadn't worked my @ss off in training, just to see it all go down in flames...

Tons of people missed their goal times by a long shot. I was pretty bummed for most of the day on Sunday, but feeling better about it today.

My quads are still pretty stiff, but nothing really hurts as in injured-hurt. The good news is that I will probably be ready to run in the next day or two (unlike after a marathon where I actually run race pace for more than 3 miles, when I'm sore for about a week).

I'll add a picture of the medal in a second. As with most RNR races, it was pretty good.

The shirts are okay -- pretty much just like the RNR Dallas shirts. So for everyone who didn't do both races, I'd say either shirt is good. For people who did both, lucky you, you know have two almost identical shirts. It was nice that the shirts weren't unisex. The shirt is black, technical material, with grey, aqua and pink on the design (yes, just like RNR Dallas).

I don't understand why RNR tries to get people to run multiple events they produce in different cities, but would still have the shirts so similar for 2 races close to each other in the same year. Duh people...

We got dropped off at the start, so I don't know if the major shuttle problems they experienced in the past happened again.

Port-a-potties and start line logistics were pretty good. They needed more TP in each porta-potty, and the corral numbers weren't enforced at all, but most people (except the 3 half women in our corral) were able to follow the basic directions and were able to put themselves where they belonged.

The course was ugly, though the elevation profile isn't really too bad.

The finish line was fairly poor. No protein available for finishers. You were given water, a bottle of cytomax, fruit (apples, bananas), corn chips (off-brand Fritos), and bagels.

The finish line concert was also disappointing. Vince Neil, and the music was good, but he didn't play anywhere near as long as promised. The show was supposed to go 11:30-12:30 (which already meant anyone finishing the marathon in over 4:45 would miss the entire thing), but he was done playing before 12:10 and really only seemed to do a few songs.

And of course the walk back to downtown from the finish line was long and painful. At least at the Dallas race, they have parking at the finish.

I heard they ran out of Cytomax at the water stops for everyone in corrals 19-35, which is inexcusable in my mind. This was an expensive race, run by a for-profit company that manages probably 15-20 half marathons and fulls in a year, and the weather forecast for Sunday was already very clear last weekend -- it was already predicted to be in the 80s, they can't blame any last second weather change for this failure.

So my third RNR San Antonio marathon, and possibly my last. I think realistically, they should drop the marathon option here and just make it a big half. And someone else should have a San Antonio marathon, and just the marathon.

It will definitely be the last RNR SA that I try to race. May just do it as a fun run to see my SA friend, etc. but not a good marathon choice. The weather is just too unpredictable. Decent in 08, hot in 09, decent in 10 (or so I heard) and hot in 11. When we got to the car (after the short concert and the very long walk), it was 86 and there were tons of people still running. What could be more miserable? Ugh.

But that's marathon number 14 in the books for me. At least it's over...