jill-a-thoner

The 2011 Santa Barbara International Marathon was an absolute BLAST! The day before was STORMING weather, but we were very fortunate that it cleared up by morning.

We arrived at the start, at Dos Pueblos High School at about 6:30am. I planned to lead the 4 hour pace group, which meant I’d hold a sign, wear a GPS watch, and run about a 9-minutes-per-mile the entire way. At 6:45am, co-race director, Rusty Snow announced, “Meet your pace groups over by the tennis courts, and they will tell you how they plan to run the race.” Soon a crowd of people were around me, and it was show time.

Tip #1: Get there early to talk with your pace group members

People started to gather around me… they looked a little scared, and a little nervous, but some were VERY excited. I started to tell people what our plan was…

“We’re going to run the first two miles around 9:20 pace, and just get warmed up. Then we’ll get it down to 9 minute pace, and run even splits the rest of the way. I’m wearing a GPS watch, so we’ll be okay.” I said.

At first, everyone was a little quiet. Then they began to ask me questions… I LOVED answering all their questions… I couldn’t believe I had so much to say… The most touching part was when they started to tell me their stories. For some, this was going to be their first marathon. Others had never run with a pace group before, and were excited to have a group to run with. Others really wanted to break 4 hours… I could have talked with all of them ALL DAY LONG! I was getting goose-bumps hearing their stories… so honored to be part of their story today…

Soon the announcement came to begin the race… I quickly grabbed my bag, put on my gel pack, and settled in as we heard the national anthem.

Tip #2: Set your GPS watch up early, AND use a backup watch

Holding the sign in my right hand, I started setting up my Garmin 405, and navigated to the screen where all you have to do is hit start. “Good, I’m all ready.”

Then I did something VERY DUMB. Naively, I thought, “Oh, I don’t think I’ll need my backup watch, and it’s going to be too much to carry everything.” I saw my parents, and gave my jacket and sweat pants to them, and handed them my extra watch. Then I headed to the start. I navigated to the screen on my Garmin where you hit START (well, actually, the upper right button on the side to starts it).  Then more and more questions came. If you ever decide to lead a pace group, be prepared to answer the following questions:

• “Are you going to walk at all?” 
• “What do we do at the water stops?”
• “Where is the 4:30 pace group? 3:30 pace group? 3:00 pace group?”
• “What are you going to do on the hill?”
• “Do you take any gels?”
• “Where are the water stops? port-o-potties?”

When people are getting ready for a marathon, they are nervous. As a pacer, it’s your job to answer their questions, and keep them calm. I have to say… this is one of the best parts of being pacer! Loved it!

I saw a bunch of my local running buddies Wendy, Arnie, Troy, Kate, Eric, Jay… wished them all good luck. I even met Sue, a legend rock-star athlete my mother-in-law works with. Small world! Everyone was so happy the race was starting - with NO RAIN! The sunrise was beautiful, and everyone was in good spirits.

Tip #3:  Stop answering questions and focus on getting those watches started

As the race director counted down to the start, I looked down at my watch, and the screen had switched to a different screen - not the screen you need to have active to hit START. Three… two… one… GO!!!

“Shoot!!” I thought, as I quickly tried to reset the watch to get it back to the screen again. The crowd was moving forward, and I couldn’t get it back to the right screen again. I started to panic.

We crossed the starting line, and my watch was still not going… How could this be happening!!?? I told myself, “…it will be okay… I’ll just get it going, and use the real time GPS - we won’t have overall mileage, but as long as I know our pace in real time.”

The watch wouldn’t start. The first mile marker passed by…

“What is wrong?” One girl asked me..

“Oh my watch is crapping out on me…” I admitted, embarrassed and ashamed. “But I’ll get it going.. don’t worry..”

I’m frantically trying to navigate back to the home screen, reset the watch, and get back to the place where I can start it again. Nothing. Just “BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…”

“Why is this happening to me? Why now?” I thought.

A couple of folks in my group said, “I’ll keep track for us, until you can get it working again.”

Wow, that was so nice of them. They started yelling out 9:25 mile, or 8:45 mile, ever time we hit a mile mark. They kept asking me if I had started it yet, but I had to admit I couldn’t get back to the home screen no matter what button I pressed. I honestly was trying everything - while holding that sign in my hand. This went on for 4-5 miles. My watch just-would-not-start. It did however manage to ask me what my name was, what altitude I was running at, and that I had managed to turn the GPS off.

“Great. This is just great.” I felt like my group was totally loosing trust in their leader.

Tip #4: If something goes wrong at the start, remain calm.

I decided to pray for my group. I was not doing anyone any good by panicking. I just had to pray, relax, and trust that everything was going to be okay. Then I looked down at my watch, and the Garmin had reset itself. I guess if you leave the Garmin 405 alone long enough, it decides to behave. It only gives you so much time to enter your name, altitude, etc. before it resets and goes back to the home screen. Thank God!

We were back on track, and got back on pace - five miles in. Oh well, at least I had my cheat sheet to tell us if were behind or ahead of schedule.

Tip #5: Stay on pace, and keep everyone entertained

The rest of the race unfolded like an episode of Glee — with a ton of “recurring characters” and lots of entertainment. I’m not much of a joke-teller myself, but I happened to have lots of friends and family who came out for the race. They were quite entertaining…

…at mile 5, we saw my parents. My Mom was blowing a whistle, and my Dad was taking pictures.  A HUGE smile came across my face - it was so great to see them. Even one of my pace group members gave my parents a thumbs up!

…then at mile 6, we saw the Brawlin Betties Roller Derby water station. My friends Beth Gilbert and Cat Allday were there handing out water to the runners. How cool to see friends and family on the course!

…even at mile 8, the pace group was till in VERY high spirits. After we headed back up toward the Bacara, over the bridge, we passed a water station. I couldn’t manage to grab a cup in time before we passed it, but one of the guys in my pace group said, “I’ll grab one for you next time. You are carrying the sign. What do you want, Gu or water?”  Really? I kept thinking, I’m supposed to be taking care of you! Not the other way around!

…between mile 9 and 10, I remember seeing Kip, one of my co-workers from lynda.com. He yelled, “Jill!” as he sprinted down the bike path to take a picture of our group with his telephoto lens. How cool is that? My pace group had their own personal photographer! Here’s one of his shots:

…around mile 11 or 12, we saw my parents again. “There’s your mom again with her whistle - man she’s a keeper. What does she do for a living?” Some of the folks in my pace group asked.

“She’s a retired kindergarten teacher.” I explained.

“Ahhh, that explains it. No problem being silly.” They said.

…at the half way point, 13.1 miles in, my personal cheering squad, Brenda Peter and Joe Harkins, came out to cheer on our group. I waved my sign, and got ready to give them high fives. HUGE SMILES across their faces as they cheered for our group. Doug was there too, and he jumped in with us, since he had already finished his leg of pacing the 3:30 group. Then Doug left to drive down and meet us at Cliff Drive, and run the last 3 miles with us…

…just before mile 14, we saw Kip and my other friend from lynda.com, Jay Patel. He snapped another great picture of us here:

…just after mile 15, a woman was sitting by the side of the road asked me, “What is happening at 4 o’clock?” I realized she ready my 4:00 sign, and thought it meant the time of day. To her I said, “Four hour finish time.” But to my group I said, “4 o’clock - happy hour!”

…miles 16, 17, and 18 were L—O—N—G…. Even though the group was jovial, we were all starting to get tired. Running down the bike path sounded like we were marching in unison. Was I leading a boot camp!? We saw Kip and Jay another time - those guys were coming out of nowhere!

…mile 19 I saw two more work friends, Dominique and Stephanie. I was getting more and more pumped each person I saw along the way. I had to be careful too… every time we saw one of my friends, we would speed up!

…miles 20-23 were long, and tiring. I had run this part of the course several times before. I knew it was long. I didn’t know our overall time or mileage, so I asked one of our group members what our overall time was. Using my cheat cheat I could figure out that we were about 2 minutes a head of schedule. We saw my parents one more time before heading down to Cliff Drive…and boy were they a sight for sore eyes!

We also saw my mother and father in law, on their bikes, and then Doug. I just couldn’t have asked for any more support.

…just before mile 24, it started to drizzle, as we passed a girl with headphones on. As soon as she saw my 4:00 sign she yelled, “F*&#k!!” and took off running. We approached Cliff, saved a little bit of energy for it, and plunged up. I then saw a few of my favorite girls in my running group, Kim, Jenny, Maggie - the timing of seeing spectators along the way couldn’t have been better.

…the last 2 miles were a little lonely, but beautiful. By that time, people were passing me, telling me, “You were my angel this whole race. Thank you.” The head winds really picked up, but the views of the ocean were incredible.

…25 miles in, I still had no idea what my predicted finish time was, since my watch never started on time, and my overall mileage was off. I thought, just run your 9:10 miles, and you will be fine. As I turned into the Santa Barbara City College Stadium, I heard someone say, “Hey, there is the 4:00 pacer! Where is the rest of your group?” I had been asking myself that for the past few miles, but I blurted out… “They are all breaking 4:00! Ahead of me!” Wishful thinking, I supposed. I felt so bad…Did I do something wrong? Did I go out too fast? I could only hope that my pace group members were all ahead of me…

…the last .2 miles were a slow jog to the finish. I was so happy to be done, and only 2 minutes ahead of schedule - 3:58. I wanted to be right on 4 hours, so the race directors wouldn’t get any complaints about the 4 hour pacer coming in too early. I kept thinking, wish I could go back and run the first 4-5 miles again. But then, I saw Doug, and he gave me a BIGGEST HUG at the finish. I started to cry - I did it! I paced my first marathon! Let the party begin!

Here is Chris, who was the only person to stay with me for the full four hours! Well at the end, Doug paced him to crush the four hour time, which was Chris’s first full marathon!

Loved being a pacer for the 2011 Santa Barbara International Marathon. Loved seeing so many friends and family along the way. Loved hanging out afterwords, and hearing stories about the race… what a great day!

If you are thinking of pacing your own marathon remember the tips and lessons I learned:

• Tip #1: Get there early to talk with your pace group members
• Tip #2: Set your GPS watch up early, and have a backup stop watch
• Tip #3:  Stop answering questions and focus on getting those watches started. Start one at the gun, and start the other when you go over the mat. Carry a mile time cheat sheet around your wrist.
• Tip #4: If something goes wrong at the start, remain calm
• Tip #5: Stay on pace, and keep everyone entertained

For more 2011 Santa Barbara Marathon photos, visit Kip Holcomb’s flickr page. Big thanks to Kip for taking so many awesome photos!