Half Marathon report continued...

So, as I told you in the last post, although the race was officially canceled, I decided I had NOT flown 1100 miles to NOT run 13.1 miles, so I just started where the starting line had been, set my Garmin, and headed off down the trail.

As usual, I started out way too fast and finished my first mile at about a 9:30 pace which is way too fast for me. I felt pretty good though and kept going between 9:30-10:45 for about the first three miles. Of course, then the hills came and I had to slow down considerably.I settled into a 10:15-10:45 pace and was feeling really good about it. As I hit each hill, I had to slow down to between 11-12 minute mile pace, but I was ok with that.

The water stations were placed well. I had decided not to take any GU with me and I'm still not sure if that was the right decision or not. I was definitely starting to get hungry about midway through and could have used a bit of a boost.

At the half-way mark, we turned around and headed back the way we came. I was still doing and feeling pretty well although my average pace had slowed to about 10:45.

Then I hit mile 8! The mile between 8 and 9 just really sucked. I definitely started feeling every hill and was just getting very tired in general. My legs started burning and I really started wanting this to be over. I just kept counting down the miles in my head and started thinking about anything else I could think to think about. Finally, I made it to mile 10 and things started looking up. Beyonce's "Single Ladies" came up on my Ipod and I even managed a "raise the roof" sign to my fellow runners.

Mile eleven started well enough and I even kicked it into high gear for a bit, but by 11 1/2, I pretty much lost all steam. My old friend, achilles tendinitis (which I haven't had for over a year) returned in my right foot. It was starting to get really painful and the next mile and a half was pretty miserable. I just kept thinking, "you are almost done and look what you will have accomplished!"

Finally I knew I was getting close to the end and saw some spectators ahead. I ran as fast as I could and finally saw LS standing at the finish line with camera ready. I was so glad to be done with that race!

Unfortunately, my achilles tendinits continued to get worse the rest of the trip and I wasn't really able to do any sightseeing due to that and the rain. I went to the doctor yesterday and got some medicine so I'm hoping it goes away fairly quickly.

Now, on to the next half-marathon in September. Hopefully that one will actually count!

Half-Marathon Race Report... Time 2:25:07

Running a half marathon... check (yep, that's me, checking that off my list)

The weekend started out great. My Little Sis (we'll call her LS) picked me up at the airport and we went to her house to call it a night and rest up. We awoke to rain and decided to scrap our plans of going into DC to, instead, hit the Pentagon City mall. After some shopping, we headed to Alexandria and the hotel where the race "expo" was to be and where we were staying the night. This is where the fun began.

It is no accident that I put the word "expo" in quotes. Although I am fairly new to running, I have seen my fair share of expos and, this, my friends, was no expo. This was essentially a grouping of three tables in a hotel restaurant with some running pamphlets on it. But, I knew it was a small race so I trekked on. Next, I picked up my bib, timing chip and t-shirt. Unfortunately, none of the volunteers could answer any of my questions about the shuttle to the race, the pasta dinner, or really anything else about the race at all.

I also noticed that only about 20 people had signed up for the pasta dinner, which was pretty disappointing since I was really looking forward to meeting other runners. When we got to the dinner, there were no introductions, and the race director was screaming loudly at the hotel staff to the point that we were embarrassed to be part of the group. The "inspirational speaker" ended up speaking on the topic of co-ops which I am still unsure of how that has anything to do with running. Let's just say, you know a dinner is bad, when we both left before they broke out the ice cream cake!

The morning of the race I woke early enough to take a shower and get to the start by 6am. They had a rolling start which meant you could start at any time before 7am. To me, this sort of defeats the purpose of a race since I get the most out of actually racing other people. When you don't have that initial shot of adrenalin at the gun going off, you lose a lot of momentum. I decided to wait until the "official" start of 7am in hopes it would be a bigger crowd at that time.

So, 7 am comes and goes and there starts a rumbling through the crowd. As I soon find out, the National Park Service has revoked the race director's permit because he got a permit for 300 people and signed up 1000. His excuse.... "they never stopped us in year's past!" What an idiot!

(Me hitting the stop button on my Garmin as I stepped over the finish line!)

At this point most of us, just said, Screw it and started running the race. Thank God for my Garmin. I kept my time myself and finished right in my projected time of 2:25:07! I was really happy with my time and I know if it hadn't been for the hills, I could have shaved off at least 2-3 minutes.

In hindsight, I think this was a race really just meant for locals, but LS and I did have a great weekend despite the idiot race director and the rain.

I'll give a more thorough report on the actual running tomorrow. Thanks for everyone's support!

The time is near!

Tomorrow I leave for Washington DC to visit my sister and run my first half marathon on Sunday. I am really looking forward to my run. I've worked really hard and am proud that I've made it to a point I think I could actually run 13.1 miles. This coming from the girl who dropped out of jogging class in college!

January 2008 is when I started the Couch to 5k program and I could barely run for 1 minute without keeling over. Well, it took a year and a half, but now I'm running 5 miles with ease.

So, wish me luck! I'm hoping to finish under 2:25. We'll see....