Half Marathon Day-This is Only the Beginning

Today was my half-marathon. It was a great day (minus the 40 degree weather, not my favorite running temperature.)

I started last night with dinner with my friend, Erin.

We went to Hectors and had margaritas, chips and salsa and tacos. This is probably NOT what my Runner's World suggests for a pre-race dinner, but I wouldn't change it for the world:)

Then last night my roommate Tami and I (who was also running the race) stayed up until 1am talking about the race. Knowing I had to get up at 4am, this was also probably not the best idea I have ever had.

Either way, I don't think either of these choices really affected my running at all. I would say the ONLY thing I wish I would have done differently is taken a protein bar or something on the run. I ate breakfast at 4:30am, didn't start running until 7:45am and completely ran out of gas by mile 9. I think this could have been solved had I made different "fueling choices."

This run was super meaningful to me because 9 years ago when I was 21, I did the half-marathon in Lincoln. I wasn't trained for it and I weighed more than I do now. My "run" time was just under 4 hours. Many walkers passed me and I was one of the last people to cross the finish line. I realized how many fears from the race played into my race today. For instance, I was fearful I would get lost because last time I ran the race I was so slow that they had started picking up the cones already. I was also fearful that there would be no water stops because they had also picked those up by the time I was finishing last time.

This race I was still running a slower pace but significantly faster than I had run before. I kept with the crowd the whole time and finished in a reasonable time (3:18). The water stops were plentiful, the roads still had cones and there were people actually trying to catch me (which was the coolest thing to hear).

Finishing the race on Memorial Field was incredibly cool. I had a little bit of energy left in me to sprint the last tenth of a mile and it was AWESOME!

The hardest part of the race for me was running my own race rather than anyone else's. It was hard for me to not try to keep up with runners but rather run the pace that I knew my body could sustain for the duration of the race. It was also awesome to actually pass some people. The race results said I passed 31 people during the race.

I am currently addicted to running this race and am already planning to keep running and possibly finish the race in 2:18 next year (I figure with a whole year of training and getting to my goal weight of 80lbs lighter than I am now, this should be extremely doable.)

Here are some pictures of the race.

The first picture is my roommate, Tami, and I finishing the race. Tami is also awesome, has lost 80lbs and finished the race in her personal best of 2:33. The second picture is of Tami and her fiancee, Grant. Grant was awesome enough to drive us to the race and to hold onto our stuff while we were running.

My mantra during the race was "this is only the beginning" and I truly feel that way. I can't wait to see what other things God has in store for me on this journey of weight loss and becoming an athlete:)