My first half

When I signed up for my first half marathon last year, it seemed like a good idea.  There was plenty of time time train.  But as October approached, I started to get nervous.  Although I run 4-5 times a week, they are not long runs (2-3 miles).  Bill and I made an effort to go on longer runs as suggested by our training plan, but the longest I run I could fit in was a 6-mile run.  Once my parents left for China in the beginning of October, Bill and I took turning going to longer runs on the weekends.

The weeks before the Rock'n'Roll half marathon, Bill pulled his calf muscle, and as the race approached it was clear he wouldn't make it.  Running alone made even more anxious, but I decided to give it a go.

 The night before, we watched part of the ironman championships for inspiration (I.e. If a 78 woman and another with one leg can finish an ironman, I can finish 13.1 miles). 

Bill and Audrey (we cancel the sitter we had arranged for her) came to watch me on race day, as Mason had a sleepover we had planned to keep him busy during our race.  The one advise I recalled was to pace myself and not run too fast in the beginning.  

I ran mile after mile, distracted by the crowd, reading the messages of encouragement on the sidelines, enjoying the cheers, picking a person around me and thinking "if he/she can do it, so can I", thinking of people that have inspired me to run, enjoying the bands along the way, realizing "holy cow I just ran 10k without stopping", thinking stopping was not an option, selecting my favorate songs from my playlist, enjoying the beautiful day and scenery...  and so I did, maintained a 10:20 minute mile for the first 11 miles, walking a little in the last 2, not because my lungs couldn't handle it, but because I was feeling the pain in my legs/hips.  I was so happy to cross the finish line and seeing Bill and Audrey!  My official time was 2:17:48, not to bad for my first 1/2.  I'm am very happy.  

He was definitely jealous and sad he couldn't run, specially because he trained as hard and did longer runs than I did.  But he was also super excited and proud that I did it.

Advil was a great drug to have after the race, I was definitely sore and it was hard to go up and down the stairs.  I will take a few days off from running to recover, but already planning to do it again next year with Bill!