Re: 1/2 Marathon Trainers, Week of October 7th
Hi All,
I'm sorry that I'm not posting until now. I know that some of you have probably hit refresh a couple of times waiting to see if I've posted.
We got the start in plenty of time and had been planning to run together (my roommate and I) but then she went to the bathroom and I went to check our baggage, and there were 5,000 people and NO way of finding each other. Because I was waiting by the bathrooms looking for her, I got to the start area late and I was stuck in with walkers and slower runners -- and I was carrying her waterbottle. I passed that off to a friend who was running to the race as a training run at around mile 1 when I passed her. The first two or three miles was all about getting to a spot where I could run without running INTO someone.
I forgot to start my watch when I first crossed the start line, so I knew that my pace was somewhere between the number on the mile markers and the number on my watch. This gave me a good buffer zone and I continued to pass people until mile 10ish when the first person passed me. But my pace was fast and I was feeling steadier than I thought I would at that pace.
At mile 10, I knew that I was fast, and I knew that my legs were starting to really hurt. But I also knew that I didn't care. At mile 11.5 we passed behind the finish and could hear the loudspeaker so the last bit was a tease. I kept trying to push past people on mile 10, but at that point it was really all mental. I passed the turn into the finish and saw my friend and boyfriend cheering and that pushed me into a sprint.
The clock time went under the ribbon was 1:49:something -- and my official chip time was 1:46:31 -- TOTALLY PUMPED. That is almost 10 minutes faster than I thought I could do it!! I was shaky and tired and ill at the finish. But then we went and had brunch, and now I'm better... much better.
Hope you're all well.
