Wait, did I miss a turn? (Walnut Creek Half Marathon race report)

About three weeks ago, I finished not the most elegant but a quite interesting race in the Walnut Creek Half Marathon. This was the fourth year of the race, part of the California Half & Full Marathon Series, and my third year running it. I have a work-related week-long conference each year in San Francisco, and, so far, this race has been on the weekend either before or after the conference. Walnut Creek is a small town (of about 70,000) east of, and a convenient BART ride from, San Francisco. The race course loops out on Treat Boulevard from, and loops back on Ygnacio Valley Road to, downtown's Civic Park (start/finish). Miles 5-7 are hilly but are followed by a scenic downhill stretch (Miles 8-10, especially M8).

This being the third time for me, I was confidently warming up nearby and didn’t get to the start line until almost 7 am (start time). I didn’t know it at the time, but, among the usual pre-start announcements and reminders that I figured I already knew, there was one key announcement that I did not know, and the lack of knowledge of which would later make this race a most memorable one for me. In fact, the race organizers themselves did not know until very close to start time. Here's the story as related in a letter that was sent to all the runners after the race (excerpted):

“To our Half Marathon Runners this morning. Our event staff was informed shortly after 5:30am that a drunk driver had crashed into a pole on Treat Blvd above Oak Grove in Concord causing the entire east and southbound traffic to be brought to a complete halt because of downed electrical lines and poles. … process of opening the lane would be at least another 6 hours. … Cancel the event altogether, or go to plan B, which was rerouting the course on to Oak Grove, … were able to get everything ready to go with the new course by 6:35am. … The new course was just short of 10 miles.”

And, here's the race course map, with my annotations. The official distance was later announced as 9.6 miles.

Not realizing the race had been shortened by 3.5 miles, when I was approaching what I was expecting to be Mile 6 and saw instead the Mile 9 sign, I immediately thought I'd missed a turn, perhaps back at the relay exchange point. Now, in hindsight, I should have realized that I couldn’t have missed any turns. For one thing, I didn’t remember seeing a mass of runners veering off along the way. All the runners whom I asked, when I ran back to check, said they were running the half. But, even then, I was still thinking that perhaps they were the faster runners who had already done the hilly section that I missed (!). It was about 1.2 miles back to the relay exchange point, and it was there I finally found out, from some runners who had finished their leg of the relay, about the road closure and the shortened course. Because I wasn't running at race speed, that backward Mile 7 was about a minute slower than the first six, as shown in the pace chart.

Exasperated with myself for going back to check, I turned around and ran to catch up, at close to my tempo pace for the 5+ miles to the finish. The result was a pronounced negative-split run, which actually is something I’ve been doing in my training long runs. My GPS watch showed just over 12 miles and a time of 1:41:29 at the finish. I ended up 12 out of 18 in my age group--not too bad for running 2.4 extra miles!

So, why did I not continue when I saw that Mile 9 sign? Why did I not realize the obvious, as everyone else seemed to have? In part, it was because I was waiting for those hills at Miles 5-7 that would never show up. But, mostly, it was because I was just so, so afraid of crossing the finish line and finding out I had missed a turn and, thus, getting disqualified. I’d rather make sure by going back, even if it turned out to be costly. Perhaps the trauma that was the DNF at the Abebe Bikila Day International Peace Marathon still lingers …

I definitely agree with the decision made by the race organizers. They did a superb job in responding to something over which they had no control, with very little time available before the start of the race, and thus enabled the race to still be held (albeit at a shortened distance). The only additional action I think they could have taken was to have someone stationed at the Mile 9 sign to tell/remind runners about the shortened course. Kudos also to all the police and other traffic control personnel, for working with the race organizers and thus avoiding a lot of disappointed runners and others.

Lesson learned? Get to the start line earlier and listen to those announcements!

Here’s the not quite Half Marathon finisher medal. :) I’m looking forward to a “Full Half Marathon” in December of this year (2015), not just because there will be a reduced registration rate for all the 2014 runners. The Walnut Creek Half is one of my favorite races!