under my running shoes. I had three goals set up for this race today. My ultimate goal was to finish in 2 hours flat, my personal goal was to finish in 2 hours 30 minutes and the goal that I was okay with was 3 hours.
Well, insert drumroll here, I did it in 2 hours 15 minutes. I ran the race exactly like I wanted to. It was an awesome experience.
Here's the recap:
Friday afternoon I head down to the expo to pick up my race packet and see what goodies they had down there. I only ended up buying some Jelly Belly Sports Beans, that I really wanted to try out. In my opinion they are a little too sweet for me while running but great to munch on when you need a little extra jolt in your day. I got DH and the girls a pizza to eat for dinner and I made myself some noddles with chicken. It was oh, so good. I got all my racing gear ready, took a nice relaxing bath, some Nyquil (because this cold has settled in for the long haul) and off to bed I went around 9:15.
The alarm went off 4:50 and because I like to get my extra snooze in, I finally got up at 5 a.m. Made my breakfast, got dressed, and headed down to the marathon at 6:15.
The gun went off promptly at 7 and we were off. The halfs went to the left and the fulls went to the right. The first 7 miles I felt great. When I passed a big clock at the 4 mile sign, it read 44:XX minutes and I knew I was on a pretty good pace to get my person goal. I stopped at mile 7 to text my mom and DH to let them know where I was, get some water, and take a Powerade gel. This thing was really good. I'm glad I decided to use them. After that, I stopped and walked through most of the water stations and drank some water. At mile 11, they had another big clock posted and it said 2:01:XX. I was so amazed because I knew then that I was doing really good. I picked it up some then and the volunteers along this route were just awesome. They kept screaming such encouraging things to us and kept telling us how the finish was getting so much closer. Finally I spotted the train depot that is the final leg of the race and I really picked up my pace then. I ran straight through the finish, beating one lady who was in front of me. Pam, the early morning worker at the gym, was at the finish handing out the finisher medals and she came up to me and said that she wanted to put my medal around my neck. I just started crying right then and there. I then saw my sister and my mom and the tears just kept on pouring. I cried because I did it, I cried because my legs were so sore, and I cried because it was the hardest race I had ever ran, and I did it. I DID IT!!!
So that's it, my first half marathon is in the books and I'm excited to find my next one and start getting prepared for it.
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