So, today’s the day of my first half-marathon. Surprisingly I’m not really nervous. I don’t quite understand that….I should be. Especially since I’ve been nursing this hamstring/tendon pull and it’s still not quite 100%. I get ready, eat a granola bar and a few sips of G2, and set off with Bill and the girls (Jodie and Kristin) for the race. They are all doing the full marathon, which luckily has the same start time as the ½. I was hoping to try to run with Kristin and Jodie for the first several miles, but they took off into the crowd and I couldn’t stick with them. I ran with Bill for the first 1.5-1.75 miles, but then he needed to walk. Therefore I was alone in a crowd now. I didn’t bring my MP3, and wish I would have just to have some background noise.

I was going along at a really good pace, maybe too fast. I had gotten way ahead of my virtual running partner by mile 4 or 5and was starting to feel it. By about 6 or so (I really don’t know as I lost track of some of the mile markers and wasn’t sure where I was at times on the race) I had to walk a bit. I just walked through the water stop and a little after and that helped. Set off again, but had to walk again about a mile later. This isn’t good, I’m only ½ done. Then at about 7.5 there was a problem. I started getting this cramping in my right side gut area. Not a breathing cramp, much lower, kind of level parallel with my belly button. I had to walk a bit and thought I could walk through it. It kept getting worse and I kept walking slower. I started to really get discouraged as it wasn’t going away. After walking probably .3-.4, I realized we were about to come up on an aid station and this one had water, Powerade, and GU. I didn’t really feel thirsty as I drank water a bit before, but maybe I needed something more. Although I’ve never had GU for running, I was desperate to try anything. I grabbed the first one I saw, luckily it was a good flavor—Strawberry Banana. I opened it and took a bit. It actually tasted really good—thank God. I wanted to just gulp it down, but was scared that it would hit me heavy. So I walked a bit, then took some more, walked a bit, then took a bit more and threw out the wrapper. Overall I probably ate close to ¾ of it. I kept walking as I still had the pain. Over the next .2 or so the pain started to subside. I guess I really needed the electrolytes. Finally I was able to start running again.

Was able to get running, but mentally I was really struggling. I couldn’t distract myself and just “get into it.” Therefore about every ½ mile or so, I wanted to stop. I started bargaining….run to the next mile marker, and then you can walk a bit. I was trying to keep to that but it wasn’t working that well. Over the last 4 miles or so, I walked a bit nearly every ½ to full mile. Not too long, probably 20-50 steps. Finally when I hit mile 12 I said no more walking….but at about 12.5 I did again. I jogged all the way into the finish and ended up finishing at 2:09:03.

I’m a bit disappointed as I wanted closer to 2:00, but everyone tells me it’s a great time. Looking back, I lost a good 5 minutes at least around 8 miles with all the walking I had to do there. As I went through the finish line, I realized how gritty my face was—all the salt. I really was sweating much more than I think I realized. It was a bit windy (which also didn’t help with the run) and it was very sunny. I think my sweat was evaporating/drying off me quickly and I wasn’t realizing how much I was sweating. The bag pickup was a disaster as they weren’t sorted. As I stood there in a crowd of people I was getting dizzy with the heat and crowd. I just jumped in and started looking for my own bag. They kicked me out once; I waited, and then noticed others doing the same again. Bill had tied our bags in a particular way, so I thought I could quickly glance and try to find it. On this second attempt I was successful. I got it, got a banana and ice cream sandwich and moved on. Had a woman take a picture of me with my medal in the Fargodome, then tried to call Jerrod to catch up with him. Jodie was having a phenomenal race and was already nearly at 21 miles already. Therefore he couldn’t pick me up and I was on my own. I started walking the 1+ miles to try to see Kristin and Bill. I waited there for some time, stretching and relaxing. Then Kristin called to say she had dropped at 14 due to her foot and was back at the finish. Shortly later Jerrod called saying Jodie finished in record time. Turns out it was in 3:50…..over 33 minutes faster than her previous PR! Wow! Bill still hadn’t arrived and I waited and waited. Unfortunately he was way behind and finally showed up walking. I walked with him a bit and he told me he had been ill for a few days and never told me as he didn’t want to put a drag on my first big race. He had mild cold and also was just tired from the marathon 2 weeks ago. He knew he was pretty much going to walk til the end. I met him again at 24 or so and walked to the finish with him. He finished in 5:58 or so.

My first ½ marathon is done and I realized during it that it was much harder than I expected. It was even a lot harder than the 12-miler I had done a few weeks ago. Obviously with only doing 1 12-miler as training and only one 9-miler before that, it wasn’t going to be easy! That was definitely the hardest mental and physical thing I’ve ever done. Although I did look around and see the sights and crowd, having it be so long and in such a foreign place, and all by myself, really taxed me mentally. I just can't do the same thing for 2 hours....that's just too repetitive. I wish I would have had someone to run with and/or my music as that might have given me a little familiarity. Good to realize what I need to do for long runs. Now on to train for the 10-mile Lighthouse Run next month!