Team Brooke Runs PF Chang's Arizona Half Marathon

Maggie and I ran the PF Chang's Arizona Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon this past weekend in a time of 2:58:45. The run went much smoother than we thought.... it helped that it was 75 degrees and sunny. It was an extremely long day and with over 30,000 runners anything can go wrong.
We woke up at 4am so we could get there in plenty of time for the 8:30am start time. Even though we got there at 5:30am, we purchased a Warm Zone package that allowed us to sit in a heated tent that was stocked with coffee, bagels, fruit, power bars, free gloves, and plenty of VIP port-o-potties. We agreed that it was the best money we have ever spent and the money went towards Chances for Children, an organization that raises awareness about childhood obesity. The alternative would have been sitting in a dark field in the cold desert air and waiting in line for a LONG time to go to the bathroom.
We got to our starting line corral and had to wait 38 minutes before we actually crossed the official start line. After 2 cups of coffee (Maggie refrained from coffee...but not me) we had to make our first bathroom stop at the mile 1! We hit that first mile right at 11 minutes. We weren't running all out, just settling into a nice comfy pace we could keep for a while. We actually had to make a conscious effort to stop at mile 3 just so we could walk to make sure we didn't over-extend ourselves at the start. We hit that 3 mile mark in 35:00 - right on pace.
It was at this point that I noticed something a bit "strange." I've run plenty of races in my time and the #1 priority to a runner is water. So when we took a sip of our first water from the aid stations we immediately realized it was tap water!!! Tap water is most areas of the country doesn't taste all that bad, but tap water in Arizona sucks! They tell you not to drink the water in Arizona due to lots of reasons - kinda the same side effects if you drink the water in Mexico. We had brought our own water bottles (I wore my belt, Maggie carried her bottle) so we had water early on. When I realized it was tap water it scared me..... I knew this water could easily make us sick.
We ran another few miles before it got worse. At mile 8 we saw volunteers filling trash cans with water out of garden hoses. Then the volunteers were taking cups and dipping them in the trash cans to fill the cups for the runners. That was so brutal we resorted to a "spur of the moment" back-up plan. Maggie knew the neighborhood we were in since her contract job with Ultimate Staffing was right around the corner and a convenience store was coming up soon. We had stashed a $20 bill in my fuel belt for an "emergency".... and this was definitely an emergency. Around mile 9 we pulled off the course at a convenience store and bought 3 large bottles of Smartwater and refueled. I carried another large bottle just to get us through the last few miles.
During our entire training we had set a goal of breaking 3 hours. A week prior to the race we did a 10 miler and struggled a bit to keep a pace that would allow us to break 3 hours. So when I saw that we hit 10 miles in a little over 2 hours I figured we could easily break 3 hours. We ran almost the same pace the entire way and I figured we ran a total of 11 miles and walked only 2 miles.
We crossed the finish line in 2:58:45 and since it was my job to "pace" us to the finish in under 3 hours, I was sweating it out the last few hundred yards. But we got it done.... no issues at all (other than a slight blister at mile 11) and already have talked about the next half marathon. Maybe Las Vegas. I doubt I can talk Maggie into a full marathon. A bunch of fun 5K's will also be part of our future plans and will be no problem. I'll throw in the JFK 50 next fall as well. So we'll need some cheerleaders again!
It was a great day and overall we hit our goal with no problems or injuries so we'll take it as a victory. Most of all...we had a lot of fun running together!! If anyone needs a couple pacers just let us know - we are now veterans!