So yep! I did another half marathon! This was not planned, but a friend of mine had a bib available because her husband couldn't run it, so I grabbed at the chance to run the Marine Corps Historic Half. I figured I had already trained, so why not do another one three weeks later?! Now this race was definitely going to be strictly for "fun" (I don't know how running 13 miles is actually fun, so that word is definitely used loosely) because I had already met my goals, and I knew that this one was known to be very hilly. I had heard the rumors that this half marathon was a pretty difficult course so I fully expected to have a slow time. It is known for its hospital hill--a hill that lasts for 2 miles. The hospital hill started around 10.5 miles when you are super fatigued as well. So in knowing all of this, I still carb loaded for 2 nights and went to bed around 8pm on Saturday night. I was a LOT less nervous this time around, especially knowing that I didn't have any true goals in mind. Despite this, I woke up at 12:41am wide awake and nervous. I am a very good sleeper. My body decided that I was no longer a good sleeper--the very night before a half marathon--the very night that I need to wake up for at 4am. I.NEVER.WENT.BACK.TO.SLEEP. Ever. I was awake from 12:41 until 4am when my alarm went off. Joy. What a way to start a race! I headed to Target and met up with some gals, and then we drove down to Fredericksburg. We were there in great time and we took a couple of snapshots, with my sleepy eyes and all. As a joke, I took a picture of the corral that I would NOT be finishing in. If you remember, I finished in about 2 hours in the last race, and that one was FLAT, so with this one, I'd be lucky to finish in under 2:30, knowing that I probably would be walking the infamous hospital hill. We then lined up in the corral that made more sense, the 2:00-2:30 corral and got ready for the start. In checking the weather at this point, it was already passed 70 degrees and the humidity was through the roof (it was over 90% humidity). Once we started, I was dripping sweat down my forehead and into my eyes in the first mile! This just goes to show you how heavy the air was. The announcer kept telling us to hydrate, and I had Danny's voice in my head reminding me of the same thing. I made sure to drink from my camelbak constantly, and finished it by mile 6. The last race I ran, I had just finished it by the END of the race. I did not want to pass out or become dehydrated in the heat. The whole race was hill after hill and I felt so tired by mile 6. I decided to peek down at my watch, and I realized that I was doing a 9:03 average for those first 6 miles. Duh! Not only were the hills and the humidity wearing me out, I was taking it a bit too fast! If you check out my splits below, I ran a couple of miles in under 9 minutes. I slowed down my pace and even walked a tad. By mile 7, I was hurting something awful. I didn't necessarily have aches and pains, I was just so hot and tired. I was so miserable. It got to the point that I had to run a mile, walk a tiny bit, run a mile, walk a tiny bit, and so on. I did this clear to mile 10. From 10 miles to the end, the course was brutal. Torturous. Horrible. Painful. Rough. BRUTAL! I voice texted Danny and lied that I was trying to have a good attitude. I was plain pooped. He texted back that he was waiting for me at mile 12, so I revved up some of my last reserves and kept going. But then I hit hospital hill. We turned a corner and there she was. At this point, I just kept praying that someone would come whisk me away and carry me through the finish line. I no longer smiled. I quit reading signs and I went into my dark place. I walked...I may have crawled. I searched for golf carts, or ambulances that may have felt sorry for me and my disheveled state, and pick me up. I may be exaggerating a tad, but it was still super dooper hard. But I made it to the 12 mile marker and started scanning the crowd for Danny and the kids. They weren't there! I kept running and scanning. I told myself that I could not stop running until I saw them. After awhile I felt like maybe he had tricked me and he was actually at mile 13. I kept running. I finally spotted him when I reached 12.70 miles. I stopped and then I got really teary eyed and handed him my camelbak and told him I didn't want to finish the race. I'm not exaggerating at this point...I really did want to quit. I knew I was so close, so I took off anyways and ran through the finish line. Usually in all of the races I have done, I have a burst of energy at the end of the run. This one I did not. In this one, I wanted to take my drenched, sweaty body and crawl through the finish line. Thankfully I did not. Danny was especially glad that I didn't make a scene. I finished in 2:14.58, and for as much walking as I did, I was very pleased with my time.
The rest of the day I was nauseous and felt awful until after dinner. The next day, though, I wasn't sore at all and was able to enjoy a field trip with Eli! With my last half marathon, I was incredibly sore the next day and could barely walk down the stairs! So as awful of a run as this was, I recovered beautifully!
It's funny to look at my splits, because you can easily guess which miles I walked some, and which ones were when I was running up hospital hill!
Comments