December Half: Kiawah Island Half, Kiawah Island SC

If you’re planning a trip to Charleston SC, you’ll wanna drop me a note.

I go there a lot.

I know lots of great places to eat and drink and see, but mostly, you’ll want to know what to pack.

For some reason, the travel gods have conspired with the weather gods to ensure that it’s unseasonably cold, and usually rainy, whenever I visit Chucktown.

As you'd guess, this trip was no exception.

For the race, the Kiawah Half on Kiawah Island not far from Charleston, and last in my quest for a half every month this year, it was nearly ideal...if you were running. 41, overcast. It was windy too but we were protected from the wind by trees and huge houses.

For a December mini-vacation in one of the great cities of the world, it was decidedly not ideal.

Don’t get me wrong, we had a TON of fun. Our hosts, our dear friends Bill and Robin, shuttled is around the city for food and drinks and art and more drinks. It just wasn’t in shorts and sunscreen. Winter coats and umbrellas were the dress for those days.

As for the actual race, I was surprised at how big it was. Lots of people, most of them in line with us to get to the field where you had the option of parking your car or getting it stuck in the sloppy mud. We chose to park, but it looked like people were pretty evenly split.

"Welcome to Kiawah... you're gonna sit here a while."

Time was ticking down to the start time and I didn’t have my number yet. We boarded a nice coach bus for the final leg to the starting line so I could get my packet. But as a twist, the coach inexplicably dropped us about a half-mile from the start.

I kept my shit together for a bit, but with just 20 min before the gun, and not knowing where the hell I was supposed to go, I broke into a panic jog.

I do no the building, just has everyone was leaving it for the corrals. Does no my best impression of a trout in spawn, I surprised, pissed off, and maneuvered around a few hundred people before finding the tables and getting my number and shirt.

After the small miracle of them running smack into Jen and Robin, I dumped my gear with them, and they pointed me toward Bill, who was already in the corral, calm and a cucumber. Cool...cool as a cucumber. But also calm. Which was good because I needed a calming influence to help me dial down my freak out.

Start blow-up thingy

But, I’d made it, with a good 2 minutes to spare. All I had to do was cruise through 13.1 miles one more time. No problem.

The gun goes off, we cross the starting line, and uh-oh...we have a problem.

Within maybe 100 strides, I could feel my stomach. That digestive miracle that I usually don't feel, don’t even think about, especially on a run, and never in a race, was making a statement. It was not happy.

It was not happy at all.

It felt as though someone had slipped a small cannon ball, or perhaps a car jack, into there. And running was helping.

Even now I’m not sure what was wrong. Was it the protein bar (which I’ve eaten before several races with no problem)? The OJ? The 90 minutes in the car? The stress of the close call getting my number? Maybe it was the potpourri of all of that.

This is me not feeling well at all

It really didn’t matter. It just was. But surely it’ll pass...right? Right?

Nope. It was settled in for the ride.

Thankfully, for the first time all year, I had a running buddy. Bill was like a machine, mile after mile...actually kilometer after kilometer. Bill likes to track is progress in Ks to get more regular feedback. Which is kinda brilliant.

Bill, and me pretending all's well

I told Bill I wasn’t feeling well, and I just camped on his shoulder. I apologized for not being my usually chatty running partner...all my attention was focused squarely on getting to the finish before whatever was in me decided to rocket out, front door, back door, or new door Alien style.

My last half of the quest wasn’t the victory lap I’d hoped. It was a serious effort. My time doesn’t make it look like it was, but it really was a difficult 2 hours and 5 minutes.

Sometimes you have to remind

the crowd to cheer for you

And without Bill, it might have been 2:15.

In case I haven’t made it clear, I felt terrible. Had I not had Bill’s steady pace to copy, and his shoulder to ride when I felt especially bad, I’d have walked...a lot.

Jen and Robin made a point of finding us at a few points along the course, which serves as a momentary boost to my mood, and a micro-boost to my pace (a guy always speeds up when his girlfriend is watching).

The after race party looked great... beer, a big buffet, live music. I forced myself to drink part of a celebratory beer, but soon I was chilled to the bone. My lips were turning blue like a 7 yr old who really should get out of the pool for a bit.

So we got back to the car, did not get stuck in the mud, and soon I was defrosting in the shower.

An hour or so after that, my tummy returned to normal. We went out for a bite. And a drink. And another drink. And then back to the warmth and coziness of Chateau Howard.

I registered for this race a year earlier. Thanks to my Charleston friend, bad ass sailor, and unfairly fast runner Craig. He told me how fun and flat and fast it was. And I dreamed of a victory lap and victory celebration on a beautiful island, in shorts, ignoring the risk of sunburn.

Oh plans...you fickle fuckers, you.

Craig's in the middle, looking like he finish
about 35 minutes before we did.

Still, though the weather wasn’t great, and my race was soured by my stomach, I can’t think of a better group of people I’d rather stand around shivering with and toasting completing 12 half marathons in 12 months.

Thanks go out to Craig for convincing me to run Kiawah, and for the tip that got me in for $40. I've already registered for 2018, and I've been assured that it's never cold on Kiawah race weekend... at least not 2 years in a row.

Special thanks to Bill and Robin for the hospitality, food, drink, laughs, drinks, friendship, more drinks, and introducing us to the Albert Finney musical version of A Christmas Carol.

Bloody Mary and/or Mimosa bar

at Paige's

And special-est thanks to Jen for making the trip, and putting up the cold windy rain, and finding me before the start, and looking after me at the finish, and generally being awesome.

And thanks also to Charleston, and the sun, for taking mercy on us before we left, and giving us one gorgeous afternoon.

We had Windjammer to ourselves

Sand. Sun. Ocean.

So...that’s 12. I’ll post a summary, look back, what-the-hell-should-I-make-of-this-year-of-halfs entry before the end of the year.

Until then...

Good running,
Doug

Hooded tech shirt... pretty bad ass

If you'd like to catch up on the year in halfs so far, here are links:

1. Jan: runDisney StarWars half at Disneyland
2. Feb: Gasparilla Half in Tampa FL
3. Mar: Sam Costa Half in Carmel IN
4. Apr: Carmel Half in Carmel IN
5. May: Geist Half in Fishers IN
6. Jun: Zionsville Half in Zionsville, IN
7. Jul: Rock 'n' Roll in Chicago, IL
8. Aug: Viking Dash Trail Half in Muncie, IN
9. Sep: Mill Race Half in Columbus, IN
10. Oct: Purdue Boilermaker Half in West Lafayette, IN
11. Nov: Monumental Half in Indianapolis, IN