The Half Marathon (Woo-Hoo!!)

I did it! I completed theWomen's Half Marathon St. Petersburg,FL 2010. In the weeks before the race I did almost no training. So, I was looking for a finish, at least. Please. Just a finish. The day before I couldn't imagine how I was going to complete the race. I just hoped.

I raced with my sister, Stefanie, her sister-in-law, Michele, and two women she met at Ft. Campbell, KY: Karen and Erin. We stayed at a St. Petersburg hotel so we wouldn't have an hour commute to the race. Good Call.

Blah blah blah. How cares about the day before. What happend at the race?!?


Race Day.

We woke up a 5 a.m. (5 A.M.!), which, being in FL,was 3 a.m. MT. I woke up with amazing energy and exitement for the race. I ate a banana, some protein balls, drank more water, got dressed and we caught the 6 a.m. shuttle to the race. So many people there, so early. A little stretching, some iPOD checking. Garmin's ready. The energy was fantastic and I was excited to go, really anticpating the race.

I sneaked in a corral ahead with my sister and her friend Karen. 15 mins to go. 10 mins to go. 5 mins then suddenly the race started and everyone started running forward.

Then I crossed the starting gate.

I was running. I felt good, like I was going to finish. I ran most of the first 3 miles then started a walk-run routine. I leap-frogged my sister and her friend (I never imagined I could be ahead of them) as they stopped at the restrooms or were on their own walk-run path. I was feeling really great. 4500 ft lower elevation makes a wonderful difference. The humidity was a nice lubricant for my sinuses and throat. At miles 6 I thought "I would do this again!"

Then it got hard. By miles 7 I was slowing down. My walking segments lengthened and my running segments shortened. 8 miles seemed like the end was getting farther. But still, walk, run, walk, run, moving forward. Up a hill. That's ok because coming down will be easier. Around a lake, through the baseball stadium, back to the top of the hill.

1 mile to go. My hip hurt, my feet were blistered, my knee was suggesting it wouldn't go the distance. Since we were downtown for this part every block would be walk part, run to the light, walk, run to the light.

I'm at the bottom of the hill. Half a mile to go. The street was lined with spectators cheering. One of things I loved was that people, strangers, would call out my name and cheer me on. Jennifer, you can do it. Way to go Jennifer. I am ahead of my projected time and for a time thought I might finish in less than 3 hours, but at this point, as I am closing in on the finish line, I'm, again, just wanting to finish.

About .10 miles to go and I figure I can run the rest so I run across the finish line, 2 mins behind my sister, hands up victorious. Not only did I finished, but competatively (compared to my expectations.)

The stats: Chip time 3:05:13. 10 minutes faster than I expected. I finished 3842 out of about 4800. That means about 1000 people finished after me. My pace was 14:08. Looking at my race stats I realize they are not stellar, but still, I'm thrilled. I didn't just finish the race, but I pushed myself to race strong. I feel like a star.

Post race I ate a banana, yogurt, apple slices, a granola bar and thought I couldn't get enough food. I stretched and thought, "Did I learn a lesson here?" I completly ditched my training plan in favor of other distractions and still I finsihed the race better than I thought. Where's the lesson in that?

The lesson is that I can barely move today. I think recovery is going to be a bear and much harder than if I had trained better.

But now's not the time to learn lessons. Now the time to celebrate.