This was my second year to run the Mercedes Half-Marathon and I really expected to do so much better than I did last year. My training started off really well, but was quickly derailed in December. I had been running a much better pace than in months before, but I got the flu and was pretty much in bed for two straight weeks. Even after I was back at work and moving around, it was another full week before I felt up to exercising. Fast forward a few weeks and we were battling snow and ice and with Josh traveling during those days off with the girls, it was near impossible to run, not to mention dangerous.
My longest run before the race was terrible. It was the worst run I’ve ever had to date and I was very discouraged. The following week, I ran 8 miles and had very few problems. It is so crazy how much things can vary from day to day. I wasn’t nearly as prepared as I was last year because of the hiccups in my training schedule, but all in all I felt pretty confident going into Sunday morning.
I can see now, that I made several mistakes along the way. The biggest being where I lined up pre-race. I was being silly and didn’t want to stand by myself in the corrals, so I lined up with some friends. It wasn’t even that they were too far behind where I wanted to be, but it made for a frustrating start. I think I exerted so much energy in the first few minutes trying to break out of the wrong pace group, that I was physically incapable of maintaining that pace throughout. My times were pretty good for the first half of the race or so, but by mile 7 I was in some pain and starting to slow down. I had one particularly slow mile and just never could recover from it.
I knew that finishing in under 2 hours was a long shot, but I thought I could reasonably hit 2:05 or at least beat my 2:10 from last year. When I saw the 4:30 Marathon pace group pass me at mile 11, I knew that I was looking at 2:15 or greater and I lost it. I pretty much cried for that entire mile and no matter how hard I pushed myself, I couldn’t catch up to them.
The last mile was pretty hard. I knew I just needed to round the corner, but at that point my body was spent and all I wanted to do was curl up on the curb. That smile on my face is less than a half-mile from the finish line and it’s about as fake as you can get. I just wanted ONE redeemable photograph, so I smiled as hard as I could and pushed on through. My official time was 2:15:36 and I was just glad to have crossed the finish line.
I wasn’t disappointed in the time, although, I would have liked to see a sub 10 pace. The disappointment is mostly because I know I’m capable of more than that. I’ve had some longer training runs in the low 9s and shorter ones in the high 8s. I think if I had been smarter, I could have finished a lot sooner. My one regret is not finding the 4 hour pace group for the marathoners and just sticking with it. I think if I had paced myself better at the start, I could have had a stronger finish. Oh, well. I crossed the line and according to Taz, I won since I got a medal!
I was thrilled to have coerced a few friends to run with me, even though we only saw each other at the start and again after the finish. Karen finished in 2:21 and Lori wasn’t far behind at 2:32 (I think!).
I left the finisher’s corral and promptly downed a Powerade and a banana with shaky fingers. Even though Josh didn’t find me on the course this year, I was so happy to see him when it was all over. I was freezing and shaking and my hips were already so sore. I dosed up on Naproxen Sodium and we headed straight for lunch at Carrabba’s. I think I barely spoke during the meal, I was so focused on inhaling as much food as possible.
I laughed when it was all over and told Josh as mad as I was for not finishing sooner, at least I could say I wasn’t a one-hit wonder. I love running, even if I’m not the fastest at it, and I can’t wait to give it another shot!
