My First Half Marathon

Months ago I registered for the Deadwood Michelson Trail Half Marathon.  Then I got hurt......  I really didn't plan on actually participating after that but I did want to pick up my t-shirt as I had paid $85 to run in the race and now all I was going to get was a stinking shirt.  So Friday Doug and I drove the hour north to Deadwood to get it.  The place was a buzz with race excitement which was contagious. Then I saw my shirt.  It said "finisher" on it.  Well how the heck could I ever wear it if I didn't actually do the race?  Doug said he wouldn't tell anyone that I didn't do it but I would know.  And then I saw my bib # and it had my name printed on it!  And spelled correctly!!  How cool is that.  So I thought well I'm up to running 5 miles again what's another 7?  (slight brain fart on my part)  And if have to walk some of it I could swallow my pride and do that.  Plus Doug was going back to Sioux City on Sunday and typically I mope around on the days he leaves and the race would be a good distraction. 

One downside of marathons is that they start REALLY EARLY in the morning.  So Sunday came and I had to get up at 4:30.  I'm not sure my body knew that 4:30 came twice a day.  The race didn't start till 8:00 but participants had to be there by 6:15 to catch the shuttle buses to the starting lines.  It was a beautiful morning not too hot and not too cold at the starting line.  There were 2000 participants in the half marathon and 1000 in the full.  And we were running on the gorgeous Michelson trail through the Black Hills.  Couldn't get any better than that.  My goal was to finish at under 3 hours and I had planned to walk some. 

When they have you line up at the starting line they have it marked for you to line up on how fast you think your average miles will be.  As much as I wanted to position myself toward the front I was realistic and went to the back and was in front of the walkers.  Yes that was somewhat humiliating for me being the competitive person I am.  LOL  I quickly got over it as within the first few miles there were MANY people who where ahead of me and were already walking.  OK this was also annoying too.  I mean come on people did you really think you could run 8 minute miles for 13.1 miles???  Did I mention that there were a lot of people who were quite chunky?  Well there were.  Sadly I found inspiration in them.  Or maybe it's being catty but I took one look at them and knew if they could do it I sure as heck could!

At about mile 6 it started getting hot and I needed to think about walking.  I did the next 7 miles mostly running though and am very happy to say I finished the race well under my 3 hour goal at 2 hours 35 minutes!  And I got a big honken medal!!

I'm kind of pumped now to do another half marathon!  I figure my time can only get better.  But I also am pretty sure I dont want to do a full marathon now.  It's not that I wouldn't be physically capable of it if I set my mind to it, it's that I think I would just get bored out of my skull running for 6 hours.  So I think for now I'm going to stick to half marathons and rename my blog if I can.  :)

POST RACE:  New blisters, not sure a toe nail is going to survive and my thighs are quite angry with me. But they'll get over it.  I'm giving them a running va-ca till next week.  Then I'm hitting the trails again.  Happy Running!