Notes
This was my first half marathon, and I set a rather ambitious goal back in August of finishing in 2:11, or a 10 min/mile pace. I got closer and closer as the weeks went on, focusing on medium length runs (7-8 miles) at faster than 10 min/mi and long runs (10+ miles) at a bit slower, with the hope that I'd be able to "merge" the two on race day. But to be honest, I had no idea if I'd even come close to finishing in 2:11 in the actual race. In the days leading up, my goal seemed ludicrous at times, and totally possible at others.
So, I started near the back, and stayed in the pack when the gun went off. I don't have a Garmin or anything, just a plain old digital wristwatch, but when I passed mile marker 1, it said 9:59. Good! I picked up the pace a little more. I kept passing/being passed by a father and daughter who would run pretty hard for a couple of minutes, then stop to walk, then run again. Finally passed them for good around mile 4. At mile 4 I had a GU and some water. I was still feeling good but it was starting to get a lot warmer. At mile 6, I needed to be at, or under, 1 hour, and I was at 59:47, yikes! I definitely got a little extra spring in my step at that point.
Mile 6 was about the point that I started feeling really hot. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, but I didn't want to roll up the sleeves for fear of sunburn. It just seemed like the sun was beating down (there was pretty much no shade anywhere on the course), and I would have guessed the temp had reached the 60s. (Though, I just checked, and actually it only reached the upper 50s). Still, I would have happily traded in my long sleeve shirt and pants for short sleeves, shorts, and some sunscreen. :P Oh well, nothing to be done about it...
At mile 8 it got harder physically; there was a somewhat large hill there, my legs started feeling pretty heavy, and those things combined with the heat made it tough. A volunteer raised my spirits though; he had a cowbell and was yelling out everyone's name (they were printed on our race numbers) and cheering for everyone individually. He was very peppy. :) So I perked up a little from that. I also had another gel, which at least helped psychologically I think.
After mile 10 it REALLY got tough mentally. You'd think the end of the race would be the easiest but no, I found it SO hard. I wanted to walk so badly. No matter how much I told myself I was almost done, it still seemed like I had ages still to go. And I knew if I slowed down too much, I'd lose my chance at 2:11. (At mile 10, my time elapsed was 1:39:25; still safe but not much room for error!) Also, I never saw mile marker 11 which kind of screwed with my head; I knew after a point that I must have simply missed it, but still. At mile 12 I was at 2:00:54; uh oh. I admit I walked a couple of times (maybe 15-20 seconds each) in the last mile; I was so freakin' exhausted and hot and I didn't think I could break 2:11. I did have my handheld water bottle with me at least, but still. A couple of volunteers were cheering at a corner and pointing which way to go as I walked up, and they said "it's a less than a quarter mile left! run run run!" Ok, I figured I could dig deep and manage that! So I did run into the finish. My chip time was 2:11:15. My husband says it still counts as a victory to finish in 2:11:xx, even if I didn't actually beat 2:11. I guess I agree. :)