First Half Marathon 9/22/2012

I created this blog to have a place to express my feelings, frustrations and concerns just to get them off my chest and forget about them.  Last year I got bit by the running bug when a friend asked me to run a 5K to help her in a weight loss competition that is sponsored by one of our local pharmacy.  I amazed at the feeling that I felt when I crossed the finish line and accomplished my goal of running a 5K in under 30 minutes.  It was 28:42!!  For not really training much, the what looked like a massive hill at the time, that was a pretty good time.  I was so excited.  After that, I had a friend talk me into running the Women's Half Marathon.  Now you have to think not long before I just completed my first 5K so thinking about doing 13.1 was just unimaginable.

Well I finally gave in and said that I would do it.  I was beginning to train and my first 4 mile run was horrible. I didn't know what to expect when running in the heat and I wore long BLACK pants.  Needless to say, I was burning up.  I felt horrible because I ran with a group and I knew that I was holding them back because I was run/walking.  More walking than running.  As training went on, my first 5 mile run was an hour long. A 12 minute mile.  I was so soaked.  My biggest mistake that I was making was I wasn't willing to give up any of my other classes that I was doing at my local Rec Center.  I paid for that later.

I started definitely knee pain and it couldn't have come at a worse time.  I was running an average 10 minute for my long runs.  To make a long storage short, I had to go to the doctor. The first one wanted to do surgery and when I went to get a second opinion I didn't need it.  I was just doing too much and causing too much pressure to my knees.  Taking the doctor's advice, I cut back on my classes on the days that I was running.  This ultimately did a toll on my finish time.

As I approached the start line, I was very nervous as can be expected.  I think I was more nervous because in training I didn't run past 8 miles and here I was going to try and run 5.1 more miles than that.  Well for a while I was staying behind the 2:30 hour pace maker and I was so tickled.  Well in between 7 and 8 I lost it.  Which isn't surprising considering that I only went as far as 8 miles.  I was barely moving.  When I crossed the finish line the clock read 2:46 and some seconds.  I was so disappointed.  I had signed up to finish in 2:45 and thought that I hadn't reached my goal.  After I got home and checked my official time it was 2:43:09!!!  I was so excited!!  I was barely moving but I completed something I never thought possible.  It was an amazing feeling!!!

Several things that I learned from my first half marathon was that training was key.  I feel that if I would have completed my training that I would have had a better overall time.  I went from doing 10 min miles to 12:27 min miles when I finished.  I was very disappointed but in the end I keep telling myself that I did something that not many people did.  Vowed that next year when I ran this race again I would follow through with my training and on days that I run either don't do anything right after or what till later in the day to do.  I will blog more about more training on the next blog post.

 

The above quote was the my motivation to continue to the finish line and not worry much about my time.