Buffalo County Stampede Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I started out the run in the back of the pack, like always. A bunch of people started off really quickly, so I thought maybe I would catch some of them later. You know how people crash and burn. Anyway, I ran the first little way behind a group of three ladies. They were running at just the right speed for me, but I started feeling a little antsy and my legs were begging me to go faster. So at the first aid station I slipped around them. Then about a half mile later I caught up to this one lady. She started speeding up and I thought ha, she doesn't want me to beat her! But I just kept running my run. Eventually we started talking. Turns out she is 53 years old and this was her first ever race. The longest she had ever run in her life was 8 miles. Anyway she was really nice. She kept asking what our pace was and everything, and I told her we were holding steady at around a 10 minute mile. Around mile 10 she started thanking me for being an encouragement and said that she never could have done it this fast if it wasn't for me. That made me feel good. Anyway, with about a mile to go she started walking. I kept running but I was hurting pretty bad, so she would walk and then run and catch up to me. I think she only finished a minute or so behind me.

Anyway. Halfway through my left achilles was hurting really badly. It kept hurting the rest of the race. I just ran through it. I think I might be starting to get some tendinitis so I'm taking the whole running thing easy this week, and will probably just be biking. Anyway, the last few miles my left knee started REALLY hurting. I was almost in tears between the knee and the achilles. I hated my life at that point. But I told Brian I wouldn't walk except for at the aid stations, and I didn't. My knee is fine today and my achilles barely hurts too, but I'm still going to take it easy.

Also I took one gel, at about mile 9 or so. I think it was just great timing.

I don't know my rank or anything yet, I'm supposed to get an email sometimes that give my official time.

Not much. Start training a little bit earlier, I guess. I hope to run another half marathon later in the season or maybe this fall and blow my time out of the water!

I stretched a little bit, drank an entire bottle of Vitamin Water (pretty good stuff, if you've never tried it), complained to my husband and my brother and sister in law. I wished I had some food, but I didn't.


Not training long enough.


This was the first year they have done this race. Only about 70 or so people competed. Their were aid stations every two miles, which was great. The volunteers were really encouraging and awesome, and there were lots of cute little kids around which really helps take your mind off of the pain you're in. :) Also there were cash prizes for the winners. The rest of us got pretty cool shirts and a rubber ducky. No medals. I don't really care about medals because most of the races I go to don't even have their own unique medals. But my brother was bummed out because he always gets his medals engraved with the race and his time.