This is my second half mary ever and goal was to beat previous half time of 2:32 from this March, run this race to the best of my ability and have fun.

The plan was to go nice and slow first 3 miles, gradually increasing to a comfortable hard pace 3-10 miles, and last 3 miles go faster if feeling it which should've resulted in a negative split run. I set my garmin display to just show time and had the auto lap function on but I turned all alerts off. I didn't want to worry about HR and splits. Umm, I didn't exactly stick to that plan.

It was in the 30's this morning and I started in corral M with my BF who was doing the full. We spent about 25 minutes just standing around waiting for them to let us go. I wore running tights and a tech shirt with an old sweatshirt that I could toss if I got too hot (which I did shortly after 2 miles). When they finally released our corral I had been freezing my arse off for 25 minutes and I went out alot faster than I should of. I didn't feel out of breath but at the 3 mile marker I glanced at my time and saw that I was at 31:xx which meant that I was running 10MM and some change. I started to kind of get nervous thinking that I was going to burn out but I felt good so I stayed at that pace. I saw my dear friend & teammate who moved away Lea, around mile 4 and gave her a quick hug and words of encouragement. Took GU at 5 miles, and at 6 I glanced at my time again and was shocked to see 1:03:XX. I was still holding pace....and I started to second guess myself again if I could hold it or not. I'm not a very good consistent runner, I'm kind of all over the place and my long training runs have been averaging anywhere from 13MM to 11:40 MM, so I wasn't really sure what my "comfortable hard pace" would be. I also have a tendency to go out too hard first 1-3 miles and get burned out the last few miles, plus the only race I've ever held 10MM were in short running races (open 5k, tri w/5k and tri w/2 mi) so that wasn't exactly helping my confidence that I could hold this pace or not for 13.1 miles. I made up my mind that I was going to try to hold it the second half of the race and if I blew up, I blew up. For the most part I felt good at this pace, but I was being distracted and fidgeting with a bunch of extra crap that I had. My HR strap was slipping and I was constantly trying to fix that (guess I was sweating so much), my ipod's earbud kept popping out of my ear and the cord was irritating me, my headband/ear muff kept slipping and sliding all over my head, and I was holding a bottle of water so I could bypass the first few aid stations and avoid crowds.....too much d@mn crap on me. So I was constantly fidgeting with something....I eventually gave up and just tucked my earbuds into my shirt and let my HR strap slip to around my waist. I finished my bottle of water and tossed that. 2nd GU at mile 9 and then at mile 10 I HAD to relieve my bladder. I was trying to hold it but the pressure was hurting. I wasn't going to be the gross chick that stunk like urine....I wasn't winning any awards so I stopped by a porta potty (bleh) and lost a few minutes here :( The last few miles really hurt, hip flexors, quads, lower back and bottom of feet were starting to tighten up and hurt. I just hung on and ran it in to the end.

Overall, I'm really happy with this run. I beat my time by almost 18 minutes, and I was over a minute faster per mile than my half mary in March (and this one even included a potty break, ha!) I went under 2:15 and this run showed me that I can run at a faster pace and hold it. I don't always trust my training and I am guilty of not always being confident in myself, especially my running because it is my weakest area out of S/B/R.

I think I nailed alot of things on this race (nutrition, hydration, apparell) but I had a lot of issues with my "extras".

I brought my ipod thinking that I would need it to get me through the race, but I should've known that I would be fine without it since I ditched it after 4 today and I've been doing most of my runs without it. I should've tightened my HR strap as much as I sweat, guess I didn't think I would have an issue with it because I've been running with it. I think my headband was just filled with sweat and that is why it was slipping down. I did practice with all the things that were giving me issues and Sh!t happens but I did let it kind of get to me. Oh, and pay attention to what the volunteers are handing out, I know my tummy doesn't like gatorade and I accidently grabbed a cup....tummy not so happy right now. Bleh.

Saw Coach Tommy, Sharon at the end, grabbed water, some food and shuffled to the car to change out of wet shirt. Put on finishers shirt and a sweatshirt that I had in the car and shuffled back to hang out with Derek. Hung out, shuffled around, saw Charles come through the finishing stretch.


I'm just slow....but I'm shuffling faster!!! :)


Post race food was "meh", but at least they had plenty of water, bananas, oranges and chewy bars this year. I heard last year was a cluster "you know what"