Let me give you a play-by-play of this mornings events:
I got up at 5:30AM and snoozed till 5:38. I had a terrible night's sleep and was up and anxious almost every hour! This has never happened before before either a half-marathon or even my triathlon, which I was terrified for. We (me and my cheerleader/mom) left at 6:06AM.
This is the first year for the Northern Ohio Half-Marathon and Marathon, and I think it went pretty well considering this. Nothing too big went wrong, just a few "littles." Most people did the morning-of packet-pickup, which was very disorganized. We had to wait in a looooong line, so it's good we got there plenty early. At the other Lake Health Half I did in June, it was much speedier and well-organized, so I think this is just something they'll have to workout for next time. The race also started several minutes late, and we were all standing in the corrals for about 5-10 min just waiting (anxiously).
Running Friend and I had plenty of picture time :)
Finally, we were off. I purposely started off in the middle of the pack, not wanting to rush out with the excitement. I didn't want to fly and die at this race, and had high hopes of setting a pretty substantial PR. At first, I thought it was good that the crowd was so congested that I couldn't run faster than a minute above my goal race pace. However, this persisted for 2.5 more miles! I'm not sure if this helped my mile-splits later on or just slowed me down about 2 minutes...either way, it's in the past. I just wish the start hadn't been so congested for so long. It was reminiscent of the Cleveland Marathon - though this was nowhere near as big.
Meanwhile, my mom got to take pictures of the scenery that I mostly ignored... lighthouses! I LOVE lighthouses and (not so) secretly want to live in one when I grow up.
Miles 3-11 flew by. Never had a faster-seeming run. Loved the course, loved the people, and another runner helped keep me on pace the whole way. I exceeded my expectations with the pace I was able to keep. As usual, miles 11-13.1 were OUCH but I did bring it down and hit my goal. I finished with a 7-minute PR.
I was thrilled to be finished - I spent all my energy. I don't think I ate/hydrated well yesterday, and I didn't use my chewable (or any drinkable) Gatorade either so I attribute this to why I pretty much collapsed at the end. I was happy though, because I knew I had given it my all - nothing worse than going back and questioning if you could have persevered more.
This happened right at the end.
As soon as I had some water and stood up and walked around, I felt MUCH better. I waited for Runner Friend to finish, and then ran in with her, which she had wanted. She did an amazing job :)
Later, I went to check my official live results on these cool monitor-y things they had .They were attached to keyboards and I just typed in my bib-number and all my stats popped up on a big screen in front of me! I wish I took a picture because that technology was really cool. I found that I placed second in my age group, and ended up winning a $30 gift-certificate to a running speciality store!
I got home and noticed that my feet got some damage...
The blood washed out so it's all good though. I showered and stretched and I feel great! I'm very excited about how today went. Also when I got home I realized that the finisher's medal had my favorite thing on it... a lighthouse! Maybe my new favorite finisher's medal.
All in all, a very well-spent fall break. Yay. :)
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