My Half Marathon Redemption Run!!!

April 30, 2018

My Half Marathon Redemption Run!!!

This morning at 4:30, I woke up at our hotel and got ready for the Women's National Half Marathon that was in downtown D.C. I have been training for the last couple of months and I felt ready from my training, but was so nervous on how the day would unfold.

To give a back story, I have signed up for several half marathons in my day, but I have only ran 1. One. I signed up for 2 in California and started training. With the first one I ended up with two stress fractures during training and then the second one, I became pregnant with Eli. The next one I signed up for in Okinawa, I ended up with a really bad sprained ankle (or stress fractures--they never did an MRI), when I went on a 9 mile run, and was in a boot for 6 weeks. Finally, I signed up for one again in Okinawa and actually got to run it! I trained really hard...or so I thought. I even ran 13 miles a couple of times before the race. This Okinawan race started (by mile 1 or so) going up a "mountain" (at least that is what it felt like to me) until mile 7! So it was uphill until I passed the halfway mark. It didn't help that the heat index was through the roof that day. Let's just say when one starts walking at about mile 2, it is a self-esteem killer. I almost felt like I gave up at the beginning. Even though the run had breathtaking views, it was a huge disappointment when I realized I did not train for a "mountain"! I walked many times throughout that race and ended up with a 2:36.52 when I had been hoping for 2:10ish to 2:15ish--this had lined up with what I had done when I ran 13 miles in my training. To some this may sound silly, but when you train so long and hard, and when something minor (like heat or chafing or eating the wrong thing or a "mountain") was unexpected, you feel like the last few months of training was almost a waste! Is it really, no, but you had built up these expectations and hopes for what would come. I wanted a "redo". Soon after that race, we moved, then I ended up becoming pregnant with Embry, then came the whole year of loosing baby weight, and then another move. Fast forward to this year. I had no more excuses! This women's race was brought to my attention and I took note that it was a fairly flat course. It was also going to be downtown in our nation's capital! How cool was that?! I decided that it was time to lace up my shoes and try this thing again. Now, you all can understand the nerves I felt this morning at 4:30. I wanted to not have regrets after this one. I wanted to not "waste" the last few months of training.

I had 2 goals for this race.
1. DO NOT STOP EVER, not even at water stations (don't worry---I wore my camelback :).
2. Finish in under 2 hours.

I lucked out that the shuttle bus was sitting out front when I got down to the hotel lobby at 5:05. After waiting for more runners to board, the bus drove us to the park where the run was to start. We were one of the first groups there, and man did I regret it BIG time. It was still dark and we were FREEZING. The weather had been 70 degrees yesterday, and here we were standing in 35 degree temps. I wore Danny's sweatshirt and a lot of us runners huddled together in a tent to keep warm. I held onto that sweatshirt until 6:40 (the race started at 7) and turned it in at the bag check. After that, I looked like a crazy girl being one of the only ones in a tank top shivering her booty off. I then headed to the restrooms and was horrified at the length of the lines. I decided to cross my fingers and waited it out. It was my turn in line at 6:58. I ran to the start line and jumped the fence and squeezed my way in so that I wouldn't have to run with the walkers and strollers at the back. I barely had time to start my watch and music (yes I was the weird one out there with the big sound proof head phones and not tiny ear buds--at least they kept my ears warm!) before we were "shuffling" forward to start the race.

The first 3 miles were amazing because I barely even noticed them. The cold weather now felt simply fantastic. Tears almost started falling so many different times. I was so emotional and full of adrenaline. I was so happy to be feeling good, and to be finally doing this race. It didn't help that we ran by the Potomac and the Washington Memorial right at the beginning--the view was spectacular. I continued to pray throughout the whole race thanking God for my health and ability to do this run. I was feeling so much gratefulness to him for the opportunity to experience something so beautiful.

This course was awesome, because after running around East Potomac Park, you run west until mile 8 and then turn around and run by all of the runners behind you. What made this so cool, was that we all got to cheer on the first and second place girls running by us. It was an amazing sound to hear us cheering as we ran through tunnels. At 6.5 miles, I texted Danny (gotta love my new watch) and then downed my gel I brought along. At mile 7.5, I had looked at the elevation beforehand on the website and it was supposed to start being hilly until mile 9. That was completely wrong. It was flat except for an itsy bitsy hill. I'm talking tiny. So tiny that I sprinted up it if that tells you anything. This was a wonderful surprise that I would not be tackling any hills today. Woohoo!

At 8.5 miles was the turn around point and I was feeling amazing! I don't think I stopped smiling this whole run! I started booking it (at least what booking is in my short-legged world). I continued to speed up from this point on until the finish line. I continued to speed up to where I was doing 8:23 minutes per mile by the end. I had done the math calculations during my training that I needed an average of 9:15 for each mile in order to finish at 1:59 (to meet my goal). Well I averaged 9:07 minutes per mile over all!! This is really good for the fact I have NO natural running abilities in my body. Yes I may be exaggerating a tad, but when comparing myself to my hubby who can run a full marathon without training if he wanted to, I think I have an argument :). 9:07 average is really good for me in a long run. And now to the finish line---I saw my family and friends, high-fived Evan and raced through the finish line. My final time was 2:01.01. Your first reaction may be that I didn't make my second goal, but WAIT! I did! I was so disappointed and confused at how my average of 9:07 didn't bring me in under 2 hours. I pulled up my watch and started looking through it. The course was 13.27 miles or even a tad more. Duh! I should have remembered that no race course is perfect! But with adding up all of my splits and such, I ran 13.1 miles in 1:59. No it doesn't show in the computer, no it doesn't show on my medal, but I DID DO IT! The run had felt so good, the cold and breeze had been so nice on the run, the views were pretty, and I ran hard. Very hard! And I never stopped! So some may argue that I didn't make both of my goals, but phooey on them ;)! I really have no regrets. I loved that I beat this challenge.

So while I was freezing my rear off and then starting the race, this is what Danny and the kids were doing. They had a 2.6 mile walk from the hotel and arrived at the finish line an hour or so after I started running. I'm glad they took their time because as I said before, it was COLD.