Just kidding. Actually, it was a pretty good race, even though I ran a couple minutes slower than my first half. Why slower? Well, basically the whole course was made up of hills, but I feel that since I only ran slightly slower than my first half—which was mostly downhill—I’ve improved a bit. I’m excited to see how I can do with better training.
Speaking of training, for this half, I definitely should have trained better. It seems that even though I can cover the distance, I have a lot to work on.
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself . . .
The night before the race, we ate some DEE-licious pizza at a small-town pizza restaurant. After that, it was time to go home and get a good night’s sleep. My beautiful sister-in-law stayed over so we could ride to the race together in the morning. I love her, and I love that we do some races together. We chatted a bit (and the Engineer and his brother talked about video games?) about our training, the race, etc. Good stuff.
Race morning, we woke up at 4:45 (or something ridiculous), got ready and made our way up to the race venue. We parked pretty much next to the start, so that was nice. We milled around a bit, tried to do our business, and got ready to race. Eventually we headed to the start line. My sister-in-law was running with one of her friends (who was running her first half marathon! Way to go!!), so they lined up a little further back. I lined up near the 10:40 pacer (I was optimistic because I didn’t really know what was coming even though I’d seen the elevation map), ready to rock this half. We had a moment of silence for the Boston Marathon victims. Then we were off!!
I kept up with the pacer for a few miles—maybe 5—but eventually I had to slow down because of all the HILLS! I had looked at the elevation profile a few times, but I really had no idea how hilly it would be. There were a lot of steep declines and more steep inclines. And moderate inclines. And short inclines. Sigh. At least the course was pretty. 🙂 It’s not like I hate hills—I don’t—but after a while, it was just a bit much. We raced through some tulip gardens, though, which were really pretty. I think I fueled decently (could have eaten too much, though) and was well hydrated. That’s a win for me. Finally the course flattened out for the last mile and a half. And I just wanted it to be over. I sprinted to the finish (and looked really “great” in my finish pics). I got my medal and helped myself to the delicious treats at the end (definitely a plus for me since I have really high expectations). The Engineer found me and helped me hobble around and carried all my stuff. We made our way to where my brother-in-law was standing, and surprise! my in-laws were there to watch us finish! We watched my sister-in-law finish and then headed to the PT booth. The PT worked on my feet and stretched out my IT bands. I felt tired but great overall. Definitely better than my first half.
FINAL TIME: 2:26:22 (slower than my last, but I felt a ton better this time around)
Next up: Nestle 5k on June 1, Freedom Run 10k on July 4, and another half on July 13
