I am incredible. I am awesome. All those other runners in front of me? They got nothin on me. I am so incredibly happy after this 1/2 marathon. I beat my supersecret goal by almost 2 minutes. Everything was perfect today--my hydration, my fueling, the weather, my attire--all awesome! So I really need a garmin. I had a watch and 1) I missed some of the early mile markers 2) didn't start pushing the lap button until 6 miles into the race 3) accidentally erased all my data 10 minutes after I finished. What are you gonna do? So here's what I remember: I met my running partner at an off the beaten path location, which was totally not my idea but totally smart. His dad works at U of I, so we met at one of the buildings he maintains. I was a little nervous about 45 minutes before the race where we met, but I ate well last night, had my standard morning cereal about 2 hours before the race, was drinking my gatorade, and popped a couple ibuprofen. We jogged slowly toward the start line about 10 minutes before the race, which was the only mistake of the day. The start line was so clogged that we couldn't get close to the pace team that we wanted to run with (we were stuck behind the 4:45 marathoners). But we turned it into a positive because we had wanted to start off slowly anyway. I missed the first mile marker completely. We crossed the second mile at 17:18. Then I don't remember until 6 miles (just after I saw my husband and kids--my husband trying valiently to get a picture of us running and then cutting across the field to take more because he didn't have the camera set correctly--I was yelling "Change the setting!" and the runners around me were laughing). We hit that at 50:53, just under 8:30 pace. I had a Gu at about mile 7, one of the race provided ones. It was thicker than what I'm used to--I usually use hammer gels--and a disgusting chocolate flavor. I choked it down and chased it with water. The only other split I remember was mile 8 (I think) at a little over 1:15. I'm terrible (about remembering, but still totally awesome at running). I started flagging a little at about mile 11, but I kept up with my partner. It was nice: I led us in the first 7 miles (he told me afterwards that at certain times when I was weaving around slower runners that he was thinking "Are you kidding? I don't think I can do this") but he really helped me a lot in the last 6 miles--I know I wouldn't have run as fast if I wasn't running with him because I didn't want to be shown up. I got more energized a bit before mile 12 because our school cheerleaders were on the corner right where the marathoners and 1/2 marathoners split. They saw us and let out a roar! It was great! And totally needed at that point. The rest was hard. I know with better fitness I will go faster next time. With about .75 to go I gestured to my runner partner to go ahead, but I kept up with him when he picked up the pace (that was smart of me). With .2 left he got a burst of energy and yelled at me to keep up as we ran into memorial stadium. I tried valiantly, but he ended up beating me by 10-15 seconds. Next time I'll get him--we already decided to run together next year. I think my watch said 1:50.20 when I crossed the finish, but I'll correct as necessary when race results are posted. I was just so excited to post this entry!
Hooray for me! update: How's this for a bunch of hooey? I'm looking up race results for my official time, and I'm not listed. Neither is the kid I ran with. I emailed the keeper of the list to see if there is some explanation, but I'm disappointed. Hopefully there's a good explanation and a good fix. Oh, and it was mile 9 that we crossed at 1:15 or so. update to my first update: Okay, so I am finally listed! They must have missed a bunch of people because according to the paper I was roughly 166 of all the women, and now I'm officially 174. I'm just relieved that I officially ran. So: I was 726th overall (out of 3752 runners)
I was 34th in my age division (out of 308) I was 174 out of 2097 women. Not bad. I'm still pretty excited.
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