The Half

There was a time when I thought running 13.1 miles in a race was silly- in fact that time was only a year and a half ago. My good friends were up in Duluth watching their cousin run the Grandma's Half and posted a comment on facebook about debating doing it the next year. I thought he was crazy and as my miles increased this summer I started thinking about running longer races. I did the 10k and decided afterwards to sign up for the Mankato Half. Today I ran 13.27 (why my half marathon was 0.17 miles more than a half I do not know).

I had a goal of running my 10k under 1 hour and I did it, so for my half I figured double it and add less than a mile- hopefully I can finish in under 2 hours.  My goal stressed me out- especially Friday night when the girls I drove to the start with sat down for a pasta feed. One of the ladies told me she thought I would finish first of the four of us. Talk about pressure.  We both started close to the 2 hour pacer and I ran with him for the first six miles and she was a little a head of him, but then I realized my mantra needed to change.  I needed to run my own race and slowed down a little. I finished in 2:05:20- not bad for my first half. I finished second of my group, but I needed to run my own race (see mantra again)!

The first 6 miles were awesome and I was hitting my time goals.  Then I slowed down and listened to my body for the next four miles.  I was running for the most part by myself, but it felt good to be out of the pack.  Right around 10 miles I felt awesome and then just like that I didn't.  The last 5k was the hardest 3 miles of the race. I wanted to be done.  It took actually seeing the finish to find my kick and I finished a second under 2:07 gun time.  

I learned some interesting things today though- I can 13.27 miles.  Messing with your running gear sucks.  My sunglasses kept fogging up, my earbuds continually  fell out and I was wearing David's long sleeved shirt, because the night before the race I realized I didn't have anything to wear! Will I run another half- probably, do I want to do a full marathon- probably not, unless I have a running partner to run with the whole time!