I ran a half marathon this morning!! 13.1 miles of non-stop running is a lot of work. I'm TIRED:) It was a fabulous experience and I loved every second of it. This is such a great race distance and I am hoping there are a lot more in my future! Silas did great watching the kids for several hours and managed to get some pictures of me coming into the stadium for the finish, which was awesome.
I managed to get to bed about 10 pm the night before and got a good night's sleep. I was up a little after 5 am so I could eat some breakfast and get moving a bit before we had to hop into the car. We got the boys up at 5:30 am and headed out right before 6. It was about an hour drive and we made it there a little before 7am. It was still pitch black and felt sooo early. It was also about 32 degrees!! I got my race packet, put my number and timing chip on, and tried to calm my nerves while I waited for my running partner, Amy.
Before I knew it it was time to head to the starting line! The race is a very small local one run in Wynne, AR. It included a full and half marathon, and I believe there were somewhere between 450-550 runners total. I calmed down a lot at the starting line and was ready to go. The gun went off and there we went, starting out at a nice comfortable pace as planned. I thought we would go pretty fast the first mile and then settle into our groove, so I tried to be intentional about not taking off too fast. Somehow though I missed the first mile marker, so I have no clue how fast it was! After about 12 minutes we figured we had passed it a while back and just kept plugging along. There was a pretty big hill right after mile 1 and then miles 2-5 were flat. We planned to have a GU at mile 4, but missed the water station so we took it about mile 4 1/2 and got water at mile 5. The sun was shining, there was not a cloud in the sky, and we warmed up pretty fast. It was a gorgeous day to run and we just talked and enjoyed ourselves. It was an out and back course and the turn- around was close to mile 6.5. The race clock read 1:03 something as we made the turn and headed back. We had been pacing right under 10 minute miles consistently to this point, which was right where I wanted to be.
Miles 6-9 flew by and we took another GU somewhere around 9. I started getting a little antsy at this point because I knew once we hit mile 10 we had never run that far before. The fun part was that there were mile markers for both the half and the full marathons along the course, so we kept seeing mile 22, 24, etc. I tried to imagine how I would be feeling if I really had run 24 miles at that point! Mile 10 came and went and we were now in uncharted running territory. I never really hit a wall, but mile 11 was a little tough. Not close enough to be almost finished, but far enough to be tired of running!! And then between miles 11 and 12 we had to re-visit that lovely hill that we chugged up at the beginning of the race. Not fun, but not too bad either. We were still going strong at this point and hadn't lost any time off our pace. I was starting to see lots of people slow down and some started walking, but we just kept pushing along like usual. I sure enjoyed the long downhill and was so excited to hit mile 12, be back in town, and hear people cheering you on towards the finish. We hit mile 12 right under 2 hours and starting really pushing the pace at this point. We were running faster and faster while everyone slowed down. We managed to pass a lot of people at this point, which was nice! We started talking about how we were so proud of what we had done and how excited we were to have accomplished this together. I started getting a little choked up and emotional at that point from all the being proud of us, so I had to quit talking so I could breathe and run!! We ran like the wind but that last mile took forever. Finally we hit the final turn and came into the football stadium for the finish on the school track. I was so happy!! I caught sight of Silas and the boys and just smiled and waved. At this point I was running as hard as I could. I always have to finish strong! I crossed the finish line at 2:08:47!! Best feeling ever:) I think we did that last 1.1 miles in about 9 minutes which was crazy! My secret personal goal was to finish between 2:10 and 2:15, with a strong hope that I could push it in under 2:10 if things went well. And I did it! Average pace for the race ended up being 9:50 miles. Pretty pleased there since we have been training at about a 10:20 to 10:45 pace.
It was a great race and I feel awesome about it. I accomplished all of my personal goals. I finished (not in an ambulance!), I had enough fun to want run another one, and I finished a little under the time I wanted to!! It was a perfect day and there is nothing I would change about any of it:) I wonder what I am going to tackle next?!?!?!!!
1 Comments:
Super amazingly proud of you!!! That is an awesome accomplishment!! Love ya girl, Kathy Reynolds
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