13.1

I ran my first half marathon race this morning and was up no later than 2:21 am to do so. I needed every minute of that to apply my make-up and make sure I looked my best. Kidding.

My dad had come for the occasion of watching my sister (running the full) and I run, and I left him and Mike down talking last night to retire early (9:30), but didn't end up falling asleep until almost 11:30. Mike was very thoughtful to sleep on the couch, listening to the monitors (Jack and Abigail had a fun slumber party in the basement while PopPop was here) so that I could ignore their potential nighttime outbursts and continue to snooze. But I heard Iris' wails over my noisemaker three hours after I'd gone to sleep. She's still been recovering from being sick all week and will NOT take a bottle from her daddy. So I obliged her and returned to bed.

For the next 2 1/2 hours I tried in vain to sleep. Apparently my nerves were all abuzz. Every time I'd be just about out I'd think and thwart my progress: Oh no! I can't fall asleep. As the hours dragged on, and the morning birds began chirping loudly out my window, my sleeplessness turned into dread. There is no way I'm going to be able to put one foot in front of the other and KEEP doing it for 13.1 miles. What's the use in even trying to run this race on so little sleep and a bruised foot? (my left arch/heel was mysteriously bruised on Friday evening, and it hurt to walk)

By 5:30, when my alarm was set to go off, I was about all ready to go- feeling sluggish, but determined to make use of all of my training efforts. My dad and I left here at 5:50, and after finding parking downtown, we tried to find Heather. Just before the race start, we met up with her between our assigned corrals. We finally crossed the starting line about 12 minutes after the gun shot and were off, set to meander our way through a tightly packed mob of runners.

Heather and me at the start

The rain began while we were waiting at the start and continued for most of the race, but it didn't bother me. I ran my full marathon in the rain and somewhat preferred the cool refreshment. Once you give in to being water-logged, it makes no difference.

I felt pretty good throughout the race but really started feeling the effects of only three hours of sleep around mile 11, when I'm sure my pace slowed. My Garmin kept losing signal, so who knows? I based my goal of beating 2 hours on my marathon time of 4:06 two years ago, figuring I could probably go a little faster than that pace for half of the distance, even if I didn't train quite as intensely, but I wasn't accounting for pulling an all-nighter the night before. But as I approached the finish, I was pleased to see 2:03, knowing that my official time would be around 12 minutes faster than that (it was 1:51:34- about 8:30 mile pace-- better than I'd hoped).

I want to curl up and go to sleep.

My dad found me right after I finished and said that Mike was still looking for parking downtown. Iris had slept in, after all, and it takes no menial amount of time to get our three readied and fed and in the van. But I have a wonderful husband for bringing them at all, and we met my sweeties a little while after I finished.

From 05/15/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 05/15/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 05/15/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 05/15/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

It turned out to be a great day for a race. And while I still think 26.2 is too much in the way of training for me, I might consider doing more of these.