I finished a Half Marathon!

As I sit here watching the repeat footage from the New York City Marathon, it reminds me that I need to write my race recap from last weekend's Silver Comet Half Marathon.


As my title suggests, Jonathan and I finished our first half marathon! The race was Oct. 29, and it was probably the coldest race I have ever run. The race was capped at 2000 people, so race morning number pickup was thankfully an option. We arrived around 6:45 am and got through the line fairly quickly and struggled to attach our race number with 3-4 safety pins in the dark with frozen fingers. I only got 3 pins on, and somewhere in mile 2 I lost a pin and my number was flapping in the breeze.


The race started a little after 7:45 and the first 1.5 miles were on the road and uphill. When we finally made the turn onto the Silver Comet Trail we ditched our sweatshirts and that's when I realized I lost a safety pin. Jon gave me one of his and somehow i managed to run and not stab myself in the abdomen. The first 6 miles flew by. The trees were gorgeous, there was a lot of conversation around me, and since the trail is an old rail bed, it was nice and flat. However, I looked over my shoulder around mile 5 and noticed that we had been running slightly downhill for the majority of the time thus far. I made a mental note of how much those last 5 miles were gonna suck.


We ran under a large over pass and Jon and I tried guessing what Hwy it was. It also looked like a canyon on the trail. You could tell how the trail had been cut out of the rock, and it was really cools to look at and see the layers in the rock. Also made for a great landmark because we ran under 3 overpasses and I knew on the way back this would the last if them.


At the 10k mark, I checked my time and realized I had just run a 10k PR time of about 1:02. Yesss! Around mile 7 I started wondering where the heck the turn around was, but I busied myself by munching on my Sport Beans. Gotta keep fueled! Jonathan had pulled ahead of me around mile 6, so I got to see him after he had already gone through the turn around. I believe the turn around was around mile 8.1, and at point I had just continuously ran the farthest ever. I did walk at mile 9 for about 30 seconds - so that I could gulp down a cup of Gatorade.


I started feeling tight in my hips and hamstrings and felt the desire to walk, so I paced myself with a couple ahead of me. That carried me through to mile 11, when I had to stretch my hips because it felt like they were about to rip off my body. Now, since 11 miles was where we topped off in training, I was venturing into new territory here. Let me just say, when I started running again, that was perhaps one of the most painful things ever, or so I thought.


I walked again around mile 12, and I knew I just had 1.1 miles left. As I was walking, I was trying to convince myself that I could do it, I could make the last mile, that i had run 8 without stopping so I could make it one more mile. Then the most wonderful thing happened. A girl that had been pacing me passed me and gave me some words of encouragement. I don't remember what she said, but it was exactly what I needed to hear to get me running again. I tried to catch her and pass her at the end, but my legs were not having it. I also tried finding her after the race to thank her, but I couldn't find her.


I finished, relatively strong, with a time time of 2:24:and some change. I did it! I had set a goal of 2.5 hours and I beat it by 6 minutes. Jon finished in 2:17:something. We got our medals and made our way over to the line to get our race shirt. Standing there, my calves and hamstrings got so tight, and at that point I was in about the most pain ever. Just about as much pain as c-section recovery had been.


Despite the pain, it was a fantastic race, and I hope we have the opportunity to run it next year as well. Also, we are now signed up for the Publix Half Marathon in March. Yay!