North Shore Half Marathon

Right after finishing my first half marathon back in 2011, I told CP that I was so happy that I was never going to have to do another half. Well, a friend of mine signed up for a half earlier this year and I decided to also sign up because what's 3.1 more miles the weekend after running a 10 mile race? (LOL) I chalk it up to FOMO which is a silly reason to sign up for a long race, but I did it anyway.

The last time I ran a half I trained with a local Fleet Feet store in CT; this time I ran by myself because I didn't have a set time or day on the weekend that I would run. Last time I also had plantar fasciitis basically the entire time I trained; this time I was relatively pain-free in my heels. Of course it is also a move across the country, two kids, and 8 years later so things have changed slightly. Ha ha.

Stupidly, I stayed up too late the night before watching the Netflix move "Always Be My Maybe" with Ali Wong and Randall Park (which is awesome by the way- even CP liked it). Going to bed after 11pm the night before a half marathon where you have to be there at 6am isn't the best of ideas. But up I was to drive to the half. This time I decided that I would chug my Spark water bottle 45 minutes before the race started so that I would have two chances to go to the bathroom before the race started. I met up with my two friends who were in a faster corral and we hung out for a bit before they left for their corral. I peed one last time and got in my corral.

I started the race and felt pretty good. I didn't have to pee and it was cool enough that I felt good. I ended up peeing twice during the race and stopped at every water station to make sure that I had enough hydration. The first part of the course was through neighborhoods which was fine, but a lot of residents were coming and going throughout the race and at times would try to get through traffic which was annoying. I got really annoyed around mile 6 because the mile marker was clearly in the wrong place (far after we actually had hit mile 6) and it messed with my head. Around this time I heard from a nearby runner that "Heartbreak Hill" was coming up- a steep decline, turn the corner and then head right back up for a steep incline- so I took advantage of of the decline and let my legs go knowing that I was going to walk up that incline!

I felt pretty good until I hit mile 10. The third week of running 10 miles and only a week after running the Soldier Field 10 miler, my legs were begging to be done with the race. This part was mentally tough too- a very long out and back where you could see mile marker 11 but knew that you were still early in mile 9 so that you had a long way to go to just get back to the same place on the road. Plus, no shade. 

My friend who finished earlier, his wife, and his kids were there at the finish line and that gave me a boost to run a little faster towards the finish line. I will say that I definitely do NOT need to do another half marathon. I was bummed that I didn't get a PR but I am 8 years older so I probably shouldn't have expected one. :-)

Nike+ Splits

Mile 1- 10:21

Mile 2- 10:48

Mile 3- 11:00

Mile 4- 11:52

Mile 5- 11:07

Mile 6- 11:15

Mile 7- 11:07

Mile 8- 11:45

Mile 9- 11:54

Mile 10- 12:38

Mile 11- 11:36

Mile 12- 12:32

Mile 13- 12:25

Official Race Times

5k- 33:54   10:55 pace

10K- 1:14:11  11:57 pace

15K- 1:48:00    11:36 pace

Final time- 2:34:13

Pace- 11:46/mile

The rest of the day I was pretty tired but the worst was getting up the next morning to get on an early morning flight to Las Vegas for work- middle seat for three hours. I definitely hobbled around in meetings all day, finally feeling better after a long night of sleep that night.