Not Fast But Not Last
My Love/Hate Relationship with Running

Well, I did it!

It’s done. Over.  I am tired, but satisfied.

I know I made some mistakes, but the experience was great and I had lots of fun.

My goal was to come in about 02:15:00 and I ended up finishing in 02:16:29.

My running coach told me to stick to 10 minute miles for the majority of the race and then to kick it into “Super Sandy Speed” mode towards the end.

I did not listen, unfortunately.

The weather was cool and my adrenaline kicked in and my first three miles were done in about 27 minutes.  So much for 10 minute miles!  I felt great and decided to just feel it out each mile and go for it.

The first half of the race was smooth sailing and I was done with 6 in under an hour.  I was so pumped!  At that point, I really thought I could finish the race in under 02:10:00.

Things got bumpy at mile 8.  An old knee injury started flaring up and I could feel a bad blister forming on the inside of my left foot. My knee was aching with every step and I could not continue with my sub 10 pace any longer.

My knee never hurt on my training runs and I haven’t had a blister in quite some time.  I tried to baby my knee a bit by slowing down and doing some high knee kicks while running. I didn’t feel defeated, just concerned, so I continued on.

At mile 10, when I tried to get down 2 Gu Chomps, I seriously thought they were going to come right back up.  I trained with Chomps and never felt so nauseous.  My body was failing me and I still had 3 miles to go!

I saw 2 awesome friends at mile 12, which put a smile on my face and I decided to do what I could to bring it home.

Once I crossed the finish line, it turned into a hunt to meet up with my party, but I could barely walk, I felt really sick and my neck and my back were very stiff.

I did not feel like this after my first half in April and I trained so much harder for this one.

We had discussed to meet at the fountain at Epcot.  Guess what?  There are 2 fountains and I was standing by the wrong one for about 15 minutes feeling very lonely and exhausted.  My brain started functioning a little more and I decided to go around the back side of the big ball and there they were!  They were worried about me because they were getting text updates on my progress and knew I had finished quite some time ago.

Along with feeling very sick, I was freezing at this point, because I was very sweaty and the weather had cooled down even more. The medal I had earned was so heavy that it was hurting my already sore neck to wear it!  I didn’t plan for it to be so chilly and we ended up buying a hoodie at a shop.  No one had pants, unfortunately, but some hot mint tea and a cookie in Morocco seemed to bring me back to life.

About an hour after I finished and almost throwing up a few times, I managed to start enjoying myself and we stayed at Epcot until they closed at 3am. Back at the hotel room,  I took a hot shower and went to bed.

This morning, I woke up and decided to look at that blister.  It was pretty big.  I felt so much better, even though I have little aches and pains everywhere. I even wore my medal to breakfast.

It was definitely a fun experience.  I wish I would have listened to the advice to keep it slow and steady, though.  I am happy with my time and I can’t wait to start training for the Rock ‘N Roll Half, which is in February.

I will post photos of the fun times soon, as they are on multiple cameras.

Disney was great, as expected, and it was fun to “eat around the world” after the race.  I loved that all my friends and family could watch my progress on Facebook and Twitter and that my support team received text updates on my progress, so they knew where I was during the whole race.

Even though I came in a bit slow and am sore, I know I did my best and I am proud to say that I have successfully finished 2 half marathons since I began running one year ago!

It can only get better from here!