My very first Half Marathon.....

Yes, I did manage to finish it.... all on my own feet.... and it was pretty good. I had a ruff training for the last three month with falling on my poor knees in August, Chris being gone for two weeks in September and than being out during the week several times after that. On top I started working and it started to take longer for the sun to rise. So for about two month, August and September training pretty much ground to halt and that should have been the most important time for the half- marathon training. October went very well, I ran 66 miles for the first time in a month and there were several above 10 milers in there. Yeah! I felt a little rusty still but than my Mom in Law passed on, Chris left for the funeral and my tapper week was a grinding halt! No running for a week and than the Half. I thought I would be so out of shape....

So we got going early around 6 am and than I realized Mckinney had closed down Custer which I only have to cross to get to Urba's place, we wanted to run this one together. Sure enough in my panic not to be too late, I miss in the dark a street and get lost twice. Still making it half way on time and than just really speeding to get to Mockingbird Station from where the Shuttle would drive us to the race. I have to say, this was one of the biggest races I have been too but also one of the best organized ones. It did not even feel that big..... Really fun!!!

It was cold!!!! Let me say this again.... It was cold!!!! So we contemplated if we should wait a little longer but realized that the start was a way to go and so we took of our jackets packed them into our bags and took care of bagcheck. When we walked to the starting line up we got an idea of how big this race was. People/Runners everywhere! 

When we hit the end of the lines, we could not even see the starting line, but I saw somebody with a stick and Balloons and the numbers of 2:40 and I just stayed with those balloons. We were about 6 or 7 who ran this race together. We did a 3 minute run and a 1 minute walk. We usually hit the water stations right when we walked. 

I have to say I have never tried this regular walk and run schedule since I did my fist C25k program but always tried to instead of walking to just go at a slower pace. This was kind of new for me but I trusted them and I found myself not being so fast exhausted as I normally would have been . 5k and than 10k came along and I still felt good. We had people cheering us on all over the place and we had one older lady come out in her PJ's and wave to us and call out to us! So sweet!

The Hill I expected wasn't really a hill, not if you train in Stonebridge Ranch. So that wasn't really a problem.

I did my usual gel and water drill and it went well except this new gel from Cliff was horrible, would not recommend. We had it as a sample in our Race bag.... Yikes.... horrible taste.

Sometimes I ran a bit in front of the group, I might try the next time for 2:30 but than I decided it was my first and I had to work on Monday, so time was not the goal. :-)

I hit the wall at 11 miles, and so did all the others too...... We walked a little bit more, but by than the end was soooo  close and we had people already coming towards us with their finisher medal on...cheering us on.... so fun!!!

Well, in the end I had enough in the tank to run into the finish! So I did better than I had expected and it was an awesome all around wonderful experience! Hope to run the RocknRoll Half in March again and than we will run for time. What time???? Not sure yet, we will see how the training will go! :-) 

If anybody has recommendations for a good first time Marathon in the Fall of 2011, let me know. My plan for next year is two Halfs and one Full Marathon. :-)