Half Marathon

Yesterday the day finally came that I had been training for since August. I ran the half marathon in Richmond. First off I would say my training was probably 70%. Had done the long runs but did not get the miles in each week that I was suppose. That being said I ran 10 miles once and figured with the adrenaline of the event I would be able to make 13.1. My goal was under 3 hours.
Sadly as I was going to bed after the race I realized I didn't take any pictures of me at the race. Luckily there are photographers along the race so hopefully some will be good, and I'm not tomato red and wincing all of them.




To start we got to the race with 3 friends and made our way to their starting corral - 1:47 pace. Almost half the time I planned on finishing. So once we started I was the last person in the wave - haha. Unfortunately the wave behind us took at least a minute to get going, so for 100 yards at least I was running alone. Not really in my comfort level with all the spectators watching me shuffle along. I ended up running that first mile at 10:30, which is WAY too fast for me. I was passed by faster runners until probably mile 11. It made me run faster which probably was a good thing because at mile 9ish my calves started cramping. And once that happened I had to run in a non-natural way to keep my calves from cramping. My feet really hurt today I think because of that.




After the race I wolfed down a piece of pizza, took once sip of blue moon, sat down and immediately felt like I was going to pass out/throw up. After spending a few minutes in a hot stinky port a potty and not throwing up, Ryan thought we should go to the medical tent. I had low blood pressure but nothing else really wrong with me. I sat and sipped water for a while then walked back to the car. I felt pretty terrible the rest of the day- crazy stomach pains. Today right after I eat it hurts but overall I am feeling better. I read that blood flow to your stomach is slowed when running such long distances and can cause stomach-aches. I don't know if that's it or it was the pizza or just I got some stomach bug thing I got the same day.
My feet ache and my knee is sore. My shoulders, lower back and arm are sore- but I think I am doing OK based on what I did to myself yesterday.
Ryan finished 2.06 and I finished 2.49.




The wolfpack represented.
A few things I noticed:
Most women wear spandex pants and no underwear while running.
People just discard a lot of clothing, hats, gloves, etc during races.
Some people running pick up said discarded stuff.
Some people don't sweat while running, makes me jealous.
I stop sweating when dehydrated (around mile 8).
Ethiopian marathon runners can run 26.2 miles quicker than I can run 13.1 miles - and it's absolutely amazing to see them sprint past you. They are pure muscle.
I should not eat pizza right after running 13.1 miles.
I will never voluntarily run 13.1 miles again. Glad I did it, but once was enough.




My medal
Update: here are my pictures