I Did It!

I successfully finished my first half marathon! I set this goal almost a year ago but an ankle injury delayed me a full 6 months.  I wish it hadn’t because the weather for that September race would’ve been a whole lot better than the weather I ran in – which was cold and rained the entire race.

When I started the race, I was numb from my elbows to my fingers; I couldn’t even press play on my iPod, it was miserable. I started to thaw around mile 3 so that was nice.

Mile 6 brought a hill. A huge hill. For some reason I thought this was a completely flat course, I was so wrong. But there was a great crowd to cheer us up the hill, that helped so much. I definitely want to volunteer and cheer runners on in the future, it made such a difference in motivating me.

I predicted I would finish in 3 hours and 30 minutes. Since this was my first race, I really had no idea what type of time I run. My only goal was not to walk. I am proud to say I did not walk once 🙂 some of my running was more of a shuffle – especially around mile 10, but I kept my pace. Speaking of pace, I completely surprised myself, I finished the race in 2 hours 51 minutes and 10 seconds. Success! Yes that is pretty slow but I never had a time goal so anything I ran would be a PR.

My parents and Jimmy were at the finish line cheering me on. That meant the world to me. They helped me make it to the car and even opened my chocolate milk when I could not because I was shivering too much. Then they took me to brunch at Liberty Tavern.

I’m so proud of myself for running this. For pushing through when it got hard and all I wanted to do was walk (or stop). For setting a goal and accomplishing it. I’m not sure I’ll run another half, if I did, I’d like it to be in the fall or in South Carolina, basically anything to avoid the cold and wet.