Notes
My foot pod stopped working after mile 10.
Bib #2722
This was my first half marathon. I have only been running for a little over 5 months so my goal was to just finish. The morning of the race I woke up early, 5:30 am. so I could have breakfast and get up there and get a good parking spot for the 8:30am start. The temps were in the mid 30’s, very chilly. I got a great parking spot about 50 yard from the start line. I went to the nearby arena where everyone was gathering to wait, stretch and just keep warm.
I headed to the start line with 15 minutes to go and ate a power bar. It was still very chilly. Good for running bad for waiting. I took off my warm up pants and jacket put them in my bag and gave them to the bag check. The finish line was ½ mile away so the bag check was great.
I lined up about mid pack. I knew I was going to get past by a lot of people but I would just stay to the right and try to keep my own pace. I went out with 10 min/mi in my head. I kept thinking “just have fun and finish the race”. After the first mile I was much warmer and pick up the pace slightly. I felt great till somewhere around mile 5. I got that low blood sugar icky feeling. It scared me, how could I finish if I felt like crap already? I downed a GU and as I looked ahead there was a water station, what timing. I ended up drinking Gatorade the rest of the race. I had one more GU and some sport beans for fuel. After mile 10 my foot pod crapped the bed. This upset me but I tried to not worry about it and finish the last 3 miles. I still felt great the last few miles. My legs were getting a little sore but I knew I could make it. With a mile to go I was passing other runners! I kept looking ahead to find my next victim and picked them off. The finish was in a baseball stadium after you cross a 120 year old steel bridge. I enter the stadium and tried to give it all I had. Looping the out field with the finish line down the first base line. I ran as hard as I could passing 2 girls and a guy with 50 feet to go. I passed the finish line and was handed a bottle of water, wrapped with a space blanket and a had a medal hung around my neck. A volunteer even took the chip off my shoe and tied my laces back. Nice!
My goal was just to finish but in my mind I thought I could finish around 2:15:00. My official chip time was 2:08:18. This was the greatest run I had ever had! I was a little sore yesterday but I feel fine today. I feel like I could go for a run but I will force my self to take a rest day. Next year I will definitely be doing the full marathon.