I’ve done it Again…
July 12, 2011I’ve signed up for my 4th half marathon of the year! Woohoo! I ran The Flying Pig and Geist half in May, which were a great start to my training and racing year. The Flying Pig was pretty random, I took a friends spot that couldn’t go because of a family reason and decided to run it just a week before the race. I knew I was in trouble and hooked on racing when I was standing on the start line for The Flying Pig, in the rain, at 6:30am with a smile on my face. Was I nuts? Most people would probably say yes, but I couldn’t have been happier at that moment in time. It was the first race I had ever started in my life without being nervous, now that could have been why I had a smile!
I let NH run ahead because she had a goal time she wanted to hit but I was just there to run, finish and enjoy the course. The energy that surrounds a road race is amazing, there are people covering both sides of the street, thousands of runners around you of all shapes, sizes and colors. People you don’t know cheering for you. There are people running for different causes, there are people wearing costumes, there was even a naked guy at The Pig!! No joke, he ended up being arrested. I didn’t get to see him though. About mile 8 (miles 6-8 are straight up hill) I immediately thought this was the dumbest thing I’d ever decided to do but kept running. Luckily miles 11-13 are all downhill! I crossed the finish line in 2 hours and 6 minutes with NH and LM to meet me right there. What a great experience to finish my first half (I don’t count the mini last year) and have two of my of best friends right there to greet me, oh and of course get a medal. I won’t lie; I truly enjoy getting the medal. That thought keeps me going at times.
I had already been signed up for Geist before I decided to run The Pig, which was only three weeks later. What the heck, I’ll get a shirt and another medal if I finish. Tom went up with me and at 7:30am, I was off for another 13.1 miles. It was a great course; I enjoyed the race atmosphere and just kept chugging along. My goal was to beat my time of 2:06 from The Pig. I saw Tom at mile 5, then about mile 10 my legs started to get tight, I thought I was done and totally off pace. I stopped to stretch, which helped. I then saw Tom about mile 11, told him I was totally off pace but I’d see him at the finish. Well, I hit mile 12 at 1:52, holy crap, I could beat my time, I gotta go! I took off sprinting as fast as my legs would take me, passing people left and right. I had my doubt that the race was only 13 miles and thought I had miss counted, nope this is it, 800 meters to go! Tom and the camera popped up at 13 miles exactly, .1 to go, done! I crossed the line in 2:01. Woohoo a 5 minute PR. I will start taking my mile times from now on so I know what pace I’m on…opps…novice mistake.
Ready to run 13.1…lets go!
I’m smiling big…this must be at mile 5
Done! Now I’ve got a smile on my face 🙂
My number # 1 fan…The Hubs
The next half I’m running is the Women’s only half on Sept. 3 in Indy. All the ladies in my Sunday morning group are running it as well so we can all train together. The half I just signed up for on Sunday is a trail half marathon. LG who I am running the full marathon with in December thought it would be a good training run for the fall, it’s in October. We might even sign up for another one later in October to get some more training. SO, I can definitely say my training will be ramping up! I’ve decided to keep you all in the loop by having a weekly training series post. So you can see what I’ve been doing, how I’m improving, hurting and see if I can beat my goal of breaking two hours during the Women’s half. I’ll share the ups and downs of it all! Until then it’s yoga tonight and a trail run tomorrow J
L