Renaissance Half Marathon Race Report

I'm amazed that I agreed to do this race. Back-to-back weekends with 2.5+ hours of testing my endurance in high heat and humidity would have seemed unlikely for me last year. Now it's not such a big deal, (now that it's over).
Everyone participating was fairly warned about the dangerous heat situation. We were all urged to prepare ourselves and keep hydrated during the race. I thought I did a good job of that, but even Coach Kay Vee conceded it was almost impossible.
Packet pickup for the race was Friday, an expo-type scenario at the Renaissance shopping mall, an upscale commercial development still under construction in some aspects. I arrived at the expo around 2pm and found Kay Vee's hubby Richard hard at work, passing out T-shirts and overseeing the volunteers who were putting together and distributing race packets. I hadn't intended to volunteer, but Richard hinted that they were short-handed, so I offered to help out for a while. A while turned into about 4 hours, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The other volunteers were fun, and seeing faces and names of the hundreds of participants was very interesting.
Back to the race...
KV advised a 10 minute run, 1 minute walk pace for me, and the run was to be slow. For me, this was a training and survival race, not a competition. I admit I was a little worried about the heat.
The race began at 6am. It was already feeling hot as the mass of people shuffled through the starting chute and over the timing mats. I ran as slow as possible, but just fast enough to avoid getting passed by people actually walking. There were many walking since this race was a Marathon Makeover deal. (Marathon Makeover is an organization that will let you pay them to drive you off the couch and into a long term training plan ending with a marathon. Lots of folks change their lives dramatically this way. Others, as I noticed during the race, do it once and revert to their former selves, but still come out to cheer on their friends.)
Most of the race was uneventful - no chafing issues thanks to Skin Sake, plenty of water in my hand thanks to Kay Vee's orders and water stops about every mile. The volunteers were great, even offering to fill my bottle for me.
Between mile 8 and 10 there were some bothersome hills to climb, and I ran the first ones but had to walk most of the others. I found myself passing more and more runners as the end neared. I was certainly not fast, but apparently more able to extend my runs and shorten my walking. My 10/1 pace degraded to about 2 minute/20 second series of bursts until I was on the home stretch frontage road. I finished strong and feeling pretty good about myself.
Kay Vee and her friend were waiting to see me finish and all seemed well. I drank a bottle of water and stopped to talk, then set off to the car to freshen up. As I walked, I could tell things were not right; my vision was darkening around the edges, and my left calf and foot were trying to cramp. I recognized the problem and kept my legs moving to sustain my blood pressure. I threw some stuff in the car and abruptly walked around a truck and into a trailer hitch. I thought I was certainly going to pass out then, but the pain must have kept me conscious. Fortunately, the damage was minimal to my knee, and I kept moving.
I made it back to the crowd and found people who would be able to identify my body if necessary. I was told my lips were blue at one point, but I gradually recovered. I hung out for the awards with Melanie, Holly, Bo and some others, and my good spirits returned.
And so passed another memorable event, and hopefully valuable conditioning for upcoming weeks.