Once again this sounded like a good idea until it came down to the training. I was doing really well with training increasing distance and speed, then I got pretty sick with a sinus infection that took forever to feel better. By then I had started a new job with different hours and therefore it took time to readjust my running routine. Needless to say other than running 11 miles once the most I got up to consistently was 8 miles at a decent speed.
So heading into this race I again didn't feel confident of my abilities. I was very worried about the weather being hot and humid as it took place May 6th. Luckily, the weather turned out perfect. We had a cold front come in and day temps only got up to around 72 degrees.
I was super excited about the weather cooperating and the fact that from the beginning of the race I was keeping up with the 9min. pacer. I discovered the pacer was actually going faster than 9min. miles and I did well keeping up until about mile 8. I had to start lagging behind a bit otherwise I knew I wasn't going to finish without having to walk. So I slowed to my pace and did a lot of positive self talk.
The end result was amazing! I ended up finishing in under 2 hours at a time of 1:58:33. I place 81 out of 1,250 half marathon runners. I hadn't done that well in a race since my first half marathon. This was my 5th. The race path itself wasn't all that exciting but it was fun to see the outfits and enjoy a beautiful day.
before
after
