#6 in the Bag!

Last week I hurt my calf. Last Wednesday, I had done one of the Biggest Loser dvds and then an easy 3 mile run. I had planned that would be my last exercise of the week before the race. I woke up Thursday morning in pain. I had to hobble around all Thursday and Friday. In fact, it felt like I had already run the half marathon. I was worried. I massaged it, rolled it, soaked it, iced it, etc. I did everything I could think of. I woke up Saturday morning at 4 am feeling a little better. I knew I would do the race no matter what, but wasn't sure what my time would end up being.

All last week I made a concerted effort to hydrate well. On race morning I ate a peanut butter sandwich and had a gatorade with chia seeds in it. I felt great going into the race (beside my pesky left calf). My sister was also running the race. She is a good runner and usually runs a half in 1 hour and 50 minutes to 2 hours. However, she decided to be sweet and stay with me. She encouraged me when I was struggling and totally went at my pace. Which is extremely generous of her. She ended up getting her worst time ever for a half by staying with me. And she didn't even care or make me feel bad about it. What a gal!

I was really excited when we got to the 5 mile marker and we were at 57 minutes! Last year, if I remember correctly, I was at 1:10 minutes at the 5 mile marker (although I thought it was the 6 mile marker--since I didn't realize there were two different color mile markers--one for the full and one for the half--and I didn't have a Garmin back then. ). If we had kept up that pace, I would definitely have PRed on this race. Oh well. Around mile 6, I really started to struggle. My calf was hurting, as was my left hip and IT band. My sister had us doing a 3 minute run and 1 minute walk to keep me from hurting my calf worse and to keep me going. After mile 6, I was needing longer walking breaks and somewhere around mile 8 or so, I was walking a lot. In all, I believe I walked at least 3 miles of the race. I just could not force myself to run. I had about 6 ibprofen in me and was still in throbbing pain.

I did really well with hydrating through the race. I used emergen-c, gatorade and water. I had an Accel Gel at mile 5 and then a GU at mile 10. I felt fine in that respect. It was my legs and hips that held me back. I was not in good shape for this race. I had not prepared properly. I felt frustrated that I hadn't tried harder to get ready.

The other thing that ticked me off, is that when I hit the start button on my Garmin as I crossed the finish line, I had neglected to start a new "lap" and it started timing off of my last run. So we're a little way into the race, I'm feeling GREAT, I look at my Garmin and excitedly tell my sister, "Holy cow! We're already at 2 miles!?" She laughed and said, "No, Wendy! We've only been running for 6 minutes and are only a little over half a mile." We went off her watch after that. I am such a dork.

The weather was perfect. It was a little nippy in the morning, but as we started the race, I felt great the whole way temperature-wise. At the very end, it started sprinkling and that just added to the excitement/fun.

Once we hit the 12 mile marker, we ran the rest of the way. Early in the race, I told my sister that I hoped I could do as good as I did last year. When we were at 2:46 minutes, Amy (my sister) said, "Hurry, you're almost there." So I ran hard and came into the finish with a time of 2 hours 48 minutes and 30 something seconds. One minute faster than last year, and I had walked at least 3 miles of it. (Had I trained well, I know this would've been my best time--oh well.) After we crossed the finish, Amy said, "Wow! You totally booked it at the end." ;-) And I did. I can suddenly kick it up a notch when I have to. Too bad I can't force myself to run faster at other parts of the race.

It wasn't my best race, but it was fun. I loved running with my sister. I love the fact that even though I was unprepared and in serious pain, I still finished. And it wasn't even my worst time. It was both my sister's and my 6th half marathon. We did it together and got the exact same time. So cool. So fun.

I love races. They keep me going. I'm probably going to do the State Capitol Half in May, even though I was thinking I'd take a break from halfs until August.