Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Space Coast Half Marathon!

Well Hello There!

I've been swamped since we got back from our trip at midnight Sunday night so I'm just now getting to posting about my race! My to-do list just keeps growing...
We had a great trip, and I'll make another post about the rest of it later this week hopefully. For some reason, time has just gotten away from me this year. For the past few years, I've had the goal of having ALL the Christmas shopping and stuff DONE by Thanksgiving, and once you do that once, it is eye-opening! It really lets me relax and enjoy December. This year is the first year in a while I'm feeling any stress about getting things done! Having trips planned for Thanksgiving and Christmas probably factor in to that.


Anyway! The race went great! The weather turned out BEAUTIFUL. Thanksgiving day was HOT, the high was like 86! But Saturday was very cold and rainy and about 60 I think. (yes, 60 is cold to me!) Sunday morning, we rolled up at the race in the dark and the temp was 57. As the sun came up some clouds stuck around and the course was the most shady I've ever done. Couldn't ask for more!


The day before the race, we went to the "expo" at Kennedy Space Center. It's basically where you can go to pick up your packet if you haven't done so already and all the sponsors are there with stuff you can buy. This was in a small visitor's center off to the side that I've never been in, and that's a model of the Russian Soyuz hanging from the ceiling.



I don't really have any pictures from during the race...I tried to take some with my iPhone but they turned out really wierd...so here's some from the finish...

Like my gear! Aggie-fied from head to toe!! Twice someone yelled from the sides "Go Aggies" at me! I Whooped at them and they laughed :)



A little about the race...

A half-marathon is 13.1 miles (marathon is 26.2). I think there was about 2300 people starting. So when you start, it takes a few minutes for the crowd to thin out. My dad and I started out running together. He was planning to do a run/walk sequence and I was going to run as much as I could. I ran with him for the first 2 miles then went on my way. About then, I saw one of the pace teams. They have Pace teams you can sign up for by finish time that will help you keep a steady pace. I didn't do that, but the time I trained for was 2 hours 20 minutes. (A little lofty I thought, for my first race, but that was about the pace I'd been running (10:40 mile for long distances-slow, I know) but really the goal when doing any race for the first time is to finish standing up!) Anyhow, I saw the pace team for 2:10 (9:55 mile) in front of us. I figured if I could keep them in my sights I'd have a pretty good chance of accomplishing my goal.

Surprisingly enough, I was able to hang with them for 8 miles! That is by far the longest I've ever run with out stopping, by like, 5 miles. After that, things went a little downhill. At 8 my knees started to bother me. By 10, I was barely shuffling. Other than that, I was feeling really good, not tired or anything really. Just in alot of pain from my knees. (this is not something new on these 10+ distances for me). I started taking alot more walk breaks between 10 - 13 miles. I knew as long as the 2:20 pace team didn't pass me, I'd be in good shape. They got pretty close I think! I was never so glad to see that mile 13 flag. When you get close to the finish, you enter this little rotunda area at a park and circle all the way around on a brick sidewalk. I about cried when I saw my husband and kids! Then somehow, mostly motivated by this lady running RIGHT in front of me and blocking all my pictures, I was able to power ahead of her and on to the finish. My final time was....

2:15:46!!!!!
(in case you were wondering, the winner did it in 1:13)

My dad came in about 7 minutes behind me. I saw him on the turnaround, he was only about a mile behind me. I really thought he was gonna pass me at then end when I was walking so much! He did well too....beat his time from last year by a few seconds!


There's my medal....BOO YAH!
My number had my name on it...that's a first too. I felt special!



This was a cool Jumbotron they had up in the center of the courtyard so everyone could see who was coming up. They even called out my name as I was approaching the finish line! First AND Last name!!


All in all, it was a great experience. I definitely don't recommend running 13 miles and then getting in a car to drive home for 13 hours. I wasn't really able to walk off any of my soreness or soak in an epsom salts bath until yesterday. Dudes, I was SORE yesterday. And my house has stairs in it. Not fun! But today, I am feeling MUCH better and contemplating when I am going to do it again!



Oh, and also? Because I'm an over-achiever like that, I did not one, but TWO races over the weekend. I knew I needed to get my last training run, an easy 3 miles, in on Thursday. That just happened to be Thanksgiving, and there just happens to be many "Turkey Trot" 5k's around towns all over. So, we decided to make that our run! I ran the whole thing with my dad, and we finished at 31:32. I felt great, ran at an easy pace, and was ready to DOMINATE the race on Sunday. It was really a confidence-booster! It was funny also because it was a pretty small race, but all the "major" runners in the area (it's a really great running community and well sponsored by the local running store) were there and they were all like, yeah, you gonna be there Sunday? Yeah, me too, I'm doing the full. I'm doing the half, etc etc etc. I was all like, Yeah! I'm doin the half! I'm such a nerd.



ps. I am NEVER going to do a full marathon. My knees just can't hack it. I need to work on figuring out how to insure my knees a little bit more so I can manage these longer distances...I have the fact that I am not an athlete working against me! Suggestions? I was wondering if something like an exercise bike between runs would help?


2 comments:

  1. I'm always so impressed by people who run marathons. Congratulations! That's such a big accomplishment.

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  2. Oh, you're right! It sounds like a fantastic race! I'm excited!

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