Well hello blog land :) I decided to come back and let you know about the half marathon I ran this past Sunday.
My running buddy, Austin, asked me a few months ago to run his first half marathon with him. I hadn't been running regularly, but I agreed because how can I not?
By the way, Austin HATES taking pictures, so he usually takes bad pictures on purpose. He will give me the worst faces possible when I tell him I want to take a picture.
He also hates when I sing to him. Or when I dance-run. Or when I get extra excited in general about the run or anything else. He likes to be extra grouchy to balance out my bubbly, but it's all an act, I know it. So don't mind him. Oh, he's single, ladies.
On to the half!
Sunday morning was the most perfect day for a run. The weather was cool, but sunny, and never became an issue. I don't think I ever noticed it to tell you the truth.
The race started right at 7am and I was pumped. We headed up a hill right away, so our first mile was just over 9 minutes. Austin and I had spent the last 12 weeks running our long runs together, and always kept a pretty decent 9:30/mile pace, so I wasn't expecting to have anything different for a race. But Austin did. He pushed our pace, and I just had to go with it or run by myself.
I felt pretty good for 10 miles, then started to feel the mileage in my legs. I had even become a little worried when all of the mile markers were coming in a little ahead of my Garmin watch, and then the 9 mile marker was half a mile early. I knew the race would be a little short, I just didn't know how much so.
I had been keeping an eye on my watch to make sure my pace didn't fall too much. I really struggled the last 3 miles, but knew I was so close to a PR that I kept pushing.
I guess Austin's faster pace, and the idea that I could PR were exactly what I needed. I ended up running 13.05 miles {agh, I hate short courses!} in 1:58:26! I was completely ecstatic and couldn't believe it. I am so counting this by the way, even though it was .05 short.
So, this is a 6 minute PR, and I ran a sub-2 hour half marathon! Austin came in about 20 seconds ahead of me and said he didn't even feel phased and could have kept up his faster pace or gone further. He is crazy. I am really proud of him for achieving a sub 2 half on his first try.
Something fun about this run was the panda motif! The bibs, t-shirts, and medals all had pandas on them. So cute :)
As for race photos; Well, I didn't think there was a race photographer, as there were none along the course. There was a sneaky jerk at the finish line, so the photos I found look horrible! If I can figure out how to share them, I will, but photobucket is being a pain and won't upload my web snippets. I guess the horror can stay hidden!
So there you have it, a blog post and a race recap all on the same day ;)