Half-Marathon

Whew! Half marathon #2 is over, better than #1, but not nearly as good as I wanted it to be. I guess I will just have to work harder for #3!!

It was freezing - literally - Saturday morning the entire time I was waiting for and running the race. I believe the temp was around 28 degrees when the race started, and we were waiting in our little corral for about an hour. We had on plenty of extra layers to strip off at the start, and we ran back and forth to the port-o-potties a few times, but it was still frigid!

Miles 1-8 were great! We ran at a good, slow pace that we thought we could keep up the entire race. We stayed within eyesight of the pacers. We took our scheduled water breaks. Our 10k time was the best it has every been. All was well, and I was feeling like my 6 months of training had paid off : )

Then around mile 8, my joints started aching. Hips, knees, ankles, toes - yes, toes! I initiated several unscheduled walk breaks because my joints were screaming at me. No muscle pain, no real fatigue, just joint pain. Becky and I regrouped several times, set small goals of how far we would run without another break, and tried to finish off the race strong. I had to let Becky go ahead of me at mile 12 when my hips were aching again, and I got quite frustrated with myself. I had virtually no pain during our training runs, and I was quite disappointed that this problem arose during the main event. I made it through the last mile, and ran strong the last half mile or so.

After the race I enjoyed a solar blanket (still freezing), a good stretch, and some McAlister's potato cheese soup. I met up with Jonathan, my mom, Becky and her parents for some photos, then collapsed into the Flying Saucer for lunch.

I ran about 12 minutes faster this year than last, which is approximately shaving off one minute per mile. If I had been able to keep up my first 8 mile pace, I could have finished with about 2...maybe even 3 minutes per mile faster than last year. So, yes, I was disappointed, but I am glad that I at least salvaged a better time.

Plan for next year: add cross training (weight training and yoga) to strengthen muscles and increase flexibility to hopefully address the joint pain issue, and put in more miles each week to increase endurance. Also...I am not going to take off two months like I did last year!! I am going to try to get out again this week for a 3 mile run just to keep my body in that mind set, and I am going to participate in the cross country racing series put on by MRTC starting in January. I have never done cross country, and I hope it will be a fun, challenging change from road racing.

* My mom and Becky's parents took some pictures, and I will try to post some soon : )