Now that the Halloween posts are all done, I can finally blog about the half marathon I ran a couple of weekends ago. This was my fourth half and I PR’ed with my best time yet! Which, I am excited to say that I have hit all of my time goals for 2013!
Here is my official time… I finished at 2:09:19! Which is HUGE for me, I finished my last half at 2:21:43. That is more then 10 minutes I kicked off my time. I have no idea why I am doing so much better this Fall in my runs?! I am still trying to figure that one out.
One thing that I love about half marathons is the expo’s they have when you pick up your packets. I love all of the freebies! Unfortunately for the Rock N Roll half, we had to drive down to the America Center and pay for parking, BUT the Expo made it worth it.
Here is a photo of me at the Expo. I had my hair done prior to leaving, I always have my stylist blow my hair out straight and she added a lot of chocolate and auburn lo-lights. Fun! At the expo I got a 2 bags of peas (ha!), a fresh watermelon drink, a strawberry/banana drink, some gummy samples… and a free cow bell for Nathan! I wore my Disney Wine & Dine half shirt from last year, ohhh I hope to do a Disney race again someday.
Before the race started, it was pretty dark still… and cold! I really need to invest in some FALL running clothes, especially a jacket! The cotton jacket I brought along made me hot after 20 minutes, so I double knotted it around my waste. 
This race was hard, I have never ever experienced any pain while running a half until I stopped running. My upper left thigh started hurting the last 3 miles, to where I could feel it hurting. It was so bad that I could barely lift my leg up to get into the shower for a couple of days after the race! Ouch! I am not sure why this happened this time and not during other halfs… Also, someone had told me this half was fairly flat, oh boy… it was not. It was just as hilly as the Go! Half and I am SO glad I did hill training!!
Another hard part about this race was I forgot my GARMIN!!!! Yes, I had NO idea what my pace was, where I was at, etc. Brian tried to install a running App on my phone, but it froze! So, all I had was the mile markers and I ran past the 2:15 pacer and knew I was going to finish under that time (he never caught back up to me!). Close to the end of the race I heard a girl tell her friends if they kept up their present pace they’d finish at 2:05! I knew I was going to PR then, but I wasn’t able to keep up with them. The last mile of the race was one gigantic hill. That sucked.
I thought the bands were really cool and I would say this was my favorite half after the Disney half I ran. There was a lot of bystanders cheering us on, I even saw a coworker that yelled out my name!
Some of my favorite signs were:
“Naked Cheerleaders 1/2 mile ahead!”
“The race is NOT almost over!”
“This is YOUR LAST hill!!!”
Brian did not run this race with me, he walked and got breakfast crepes at Rooster! Ha! So jealous!
I am so proud of my PR. I am not sure what my exercise goals for 2014 will be yet, but I feel I am ready for a change. One thing I am considering is a Triathlon.
