I went out way too fast, even though I tried to slow down I kept getting pulled along by the crowd and I felt good. By the half-way point, though, my hips were hurting and I knew I was in trouble. The last ten miles were very hard; there were at least two moments when I thought that my hamstrings and calves were going to cramps up and end my day.I wanted to quit off and on the whole time from the time I got onto Kelly Drive. I even decided at one point that I was never going to run again. ;-) Even the cheering crowds were p***ing me off, especially when they'd use my name (from the bib) and tell me that I was "looking good!" when I felt anything but. I tried to "rest" while running by paying attention to form, meditating, turning on my mp3 player, etc, all of which usually helps me during a race but even when I started walking for 30 sec to a minute at the water stops in the last few miles it didn't help. I was seriously considering just walking the last two miles, but in truth I hurt just as much walking as I did running and so I just sucked it up and finished-- I even was able to pick it up a little bit over the last mile.

Lots. If I stay in the city again (if I even do a city race again, that is) I'll wear earplugs at night to cut down on the noise. I will go out more slowly at the start, and drink more early on.

I staggered through the very slim post-race food offerings, got my bag, sat down and stretched my legs a little, then limped to the meeting place. I was so out of it I went to the "G to J" site instead of K, and went down to the ground, where Carrie and Chrissy found me.


I don't know. I thought I'd trained well (I did all of the runs except one 13 miler when I had the flu, and had done all my speedwork faithfully). I guess I just went out too fast, and then hit the wall.


The race itself is good, although they had the worst post-race food I've ever seen. There were scattered oranges, pretzels, and thin clear soup broth in the smallest paper cups I've ever seen. However, the reason I rate this race "worst" for me is that I really didn't enjoy it-- and I run because I enjoy it, and I can't say that I didn't enjoy any other race that I've run/biked/swum before. I enjoyed training for it, and I was proud of following a training schedule so well. So, I'm glad I did it, and I learned that I can endure a lot in the interests of finishing something, and looking back, I would say it was worth it. I'm not entirely happy with my race, even though I finished, because I sort of accepted that I _would_ finish as a given, and wanted to do well. It may be that mile goal time was unrealistic. I'll have to be satisfied with the fact that I actually got a PR for the half marathon (1:55)!