Half marathon recap

My plan:

Hopefully finish in 2 hours, 30 minutes. I would eat either a Clif Block Shot or Sport Jelly Beans every two miles. I would get water at every other water station.

Pre-race:
I spent a few days worrying about my left foot that was hurt in my fall down the stairs last week. Thankfully it was feeling better by the time the race rolled around. My heels were a different story…

Saturday I got my period which was the absolute worst timing (especially because I was late by 2.5 days which got my hopes up). CP and I spent most of the day cleaning (aka on my feet all day) before my mom arrived. We had a delicious dinner of grilled fish, veggies and rice. I slept okay Saturday night- CP took the 2am Buster slot but I kept waking up before my 5am alarm because I was worried that Buster was going to bark and wake up my mom.

I woke up that morning and had a heavy flow. FML. I changed tampons about 30 minutes before the start of the race in a porta-potty and stuck another into my sports bra for later.

I ate Gu about 15 minutes before the race started and then headed over to the starting line, making jokes to try to calm my nerves. It was probably 62 degrees out and sunny- a perfect day to run!

Race:
The first two miles were spent with two ladies from my running group that were usually a little slower than me. They were running well and we were on track to definitely break two hours and forty minutes. I definitely felt the bruise on my butt every time I took a step (damn fat jiggles), but the pain was less noticeable starting with mile 3.

Miles 3 and 4 were spent with one of my coaches. I had decided to speed up a bit because I was feeling good….the coach was a little worried that I did that but I assured him that I would slow down if I need to. I ate a Clif Block shot at the start of mile three and drank some water.

Around mile 5 I was still feeling great, but had the feeling that I needed to change my tampon (skip this paragraph if you don’t like TMI). My coach had moved on so I decided to investigate how my tampon was doing between my boobs. Not. Good. I knew that I would be sweaty, but didn’t really have any other place to put it. When I looked down the orange paper wrapper had disintegrated and rubbed the orange coloring all over my skin. The cardboard applicator was also wet and the tampon had partially opened to soak up sweat. Why didn't I try to find a PLASTIC applicator tampon?? I decided to stop at the next porta potty. That meant losing about three minutes waiting for the person in front of me. I ended up taking off the cardboard applicator and frankly just sticking the tampon up with my bare hands (thankfully there was hand sanitizer).

By this time the two ladies from my group that I was in front of had passed me while I was in the porta potty. I set them in my sights and sped up to catch them. Meanwhile the elite runners started to pass me (aka lap us) while running 6 minute miles. Bastards. I stayed with my friends through some of mile 6 but realized that I would soon see CP and my mom at mile 8. That made me run a little faster, although I was worried that I wouldn’t see them and that would devastate me. Sure enough, there was my small cheering section at mile 8! It put an extra bounce in my step for the next mile (despite having to run past the finish line). My time at mile 8 was 1 hour, 30 minutes and 4 seconds. I started to think that I really could make my goal time.

Starting at mile 9 the outside of my right foot started to hurt. I also started to eat two Sport Jelly Beans at every mile marker, thinking that I needed to keep my energy up. I could tell that I was slowing down, but was trying to keep my pace up. I mentally tried to stay in the race, telling myself at mile 10 that I only had a 5K left. At mile 11 I told myself that I had less than 25 minutes to go. Mile 12 was the hardest because my pace slowed down a bunch because my left inside quad started to seize. Great timing.

With about 400 meters left, my coach joined me on the course (he had already finished) and helped me finish. Another coach yelled at me from the sidelines to sprint to the finish- I'm not sure that what I did would be called "sprinting" but it was the best I could do after 13 miles.

First 8 miles- 1:30:04

13.1 miles- 2:30:35

Pace: 11:30

Calories burned: 1800

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CP came up, gave me a kiss at the finish line and asked how I was feeling. My exact words were, “Hurting, but glad that I never have to do this again.” LOL.

Post race:

Sitting down while stretching was a necessity for a bit after the race. I was walking slowly everywhere as my feet were screaming. My mom was able to drive my car home for me and I tried to sit as much as possible before stuffing my face with a delicious and healthy lunch made by CP. I didn’t get to nap as we headed out to a nursery to check out trees for our front yard after my shower. We then sat down for an ice cream sundae which was well deserved on my part.

After all of my worries about getting injured during training, I’m proud that I stuck it out and can now say that I have done a half marathon. And thank goodness I’m happy with my time so that I don’t have to do another one!