3M half Marathon

Posted on January 25th, 2009 by Middalia

Woke up at 4:30 this morning to start getting ready for my first half marathon. I have run 17 miles in training so I am confident I can finish. But I would really hate to go over 2 hours. Got dressed, ate my oatmeal, got my shoes one and got the family up and out of the house by 5:30. We arrived at the race venue a little earlier than I thought we would and had to wait around for over an hour. We sat in the car most of the time. I tried to warm up a little with some jogging. Lined up I couldn’t believe all of the people, it was really tight. But the crowd made waiting around not so cold. As I started running I began to doubt myself and the running felt really hard. The 3M is advertised a almost exclusivly downhill but it did not feel that way. Every mile marker was a relief, one more mile conquered. The balls of my feet were really hurting me by mile 10, I am not used to running on the road. I do most of my training on crushed gravel trails. But I toughed it out, quoting Lance Armstrongs “pain is temporary, quitting is forever” and “whatever doesn’t kill me, can only make me stronger” in my head. When I reached mile thirteen I felt a surge of relief, I knew I had one more mile left in me and gave it my best. My chiptime was 1:57:55. I beat my goal by a little over 2 minutes. I am very tired now and a little sore, I think I might take a nap. ZZZZZZZZZ