The day had arrived, my first half-marathon. 13.1 miles. It's the furthest distance I've ever run.
It was an early morning, as most marathon mornings are. Start time was scheduled for 7:03am. It was more of a mental preparedness and hoping that what I was fueling my body with was the right thing and enough. I don't think I got it right, but I also think I was thinking too much about it. I know I was thinking of it more in terms of "when I run the marathon..." and obviously I did not have to be ready for that yet. I think most of the preparation for the half-marathon was really preparation for the marathon in October, never having done this before and still learning about proper fuel for before, during and after running distance like this.
All in all, marathon-preparedness aside, I was ready. I was feeling pretty comfortable with the distance. There wasn't much more I could do at this point. It was time to run. It was time to move. It was time to prove to myself everything that was in my head. I could do this.
We three amigas met up near the starting line. Thankfully, we are all in a pretty similar head space. We are preparing for a marathon. This is just more training. Two of us have never run a half-marathon before, so we were all planning on PR-ing :) While we would have loved to be under 2 hours, at least two of us, myself being one of them, needed to be realistic and realize that our speed was not there yet. We had selected a finish time of 2:11-2:22. 2:15 sounded like a good goal for myself and that's what I chose as my goal.
As the race began, my legs felt like led. They were moving, but they were not moving as quickly or as easily as I would have liked. It took a little bit for them to feel a little better and that can be normal for me. It was still okay. Like I said, they were moving.
Honestly, I needed new shoes. I knew that, but it was too close to race time and I would get a $20 coupon for new shoes after the race. This is where most of my pain had come from in the last few weeks leading up to the half. This is where most of my problems came from on the day of. I actually didn't have a lot of the normal pains that I'd been having, but my feet did hurt. I was moving and pushing, but I was falling behind my friends. Occasionally, I caught up to them again, but once we hit Meadowbrook park, I knew I would lose momentum. I stayed with them through most of the park, but after the second incline, my back started to hurt and I started to lose it. Then, there was a third incline. Perhaps this was all a mental battle that I lost. While I have run Meadowbrook with Henri many times, it is a challenge. The fact that it was mile 8 and 9, probably not the best timing for me. I fell behind my friends for the last time right before mile 10. I had them in my sights for most of the rest of it, but I knew I would not be catching up to them again.
I was still okay though. I was still moving. My back was sore, but it wasn't a pain that was stopping me. Maybe I could have pushed and caught up with them and kept up with them. Maybe that would have been a little bit of help in the motivation game, but I was also okay being where I was. I didn't want to push too hard and have horrible pain. I didn't want to not be able to run the whole thing. I just had to keep moving and to finish. It was my first half-marathon. I wasn't feeling like I couldn't do it. I was just facing some challenges.
I finished. I did it. I ran 13.1 miles without stopping. Meadowbrook park didn't stop me. That last stupid incline right before the stadium didn't stop me (though it freakin' tried). The people stopping and going and getting in my way didn't stop me. I ran across that finish line and there my friends were. 2:18:06, a time completely acceptable to me. Later, when I looked at my splits, my pace was much better than I was feeling it was. I only had 2 miles over 11 minute miles. My average pace was 10:33. These are all things I can be proud of. I can beat 2:15 next time (and I will).
We did it! Time for a nap with my puppy.
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