What a cool running season for me - I went from running my first half marathon in January and crossing the finish line with my mom to running my fourth, personal best half marathon and crossing the finish line with my father in April.
Leading up to the run, I was stressing a lot of the outcome. I really wanted to run a half marathon at a sub 2 hour race and I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to make this race the race for it to happen in. But I knew it was going to be hot and I didn't train very well during the 4 weeks before. I decided not to write any goals on paper and just make my last half marathon of the season a good race to end with...and that it was.
By 530 the temperature was already ready 79 degrees and the sun hadn't even come up yet. I am super paranoid of dehydration and decided to run with a bottle of water since it was only getting hotter by 7. They were expecting temps of 86 during the day with no cloud coverage. And when I say no cloud coverage, I literally mean there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. So the race was off (you can catch a glimpse of my mom in the picture as well to the left). My dad, who is like speed lightning, volunteered to help pace me to a sub 2 hour race. I was just off of this mark a few weeks earlier by 1 minute and 13 seconds at the
Gasparilla half. The first two miles felt great even though the heat was brutal. My plan was only to do 9:15-9:20 for the first three miles but I wasn't complaining about the 8:56, 9:02, and 9:00 miles.
By mile 3, I was drenched in sweat, almost through an entire bottle of water (even though I stopped at each water stop) and having a little fun since my times were slightly faster than I planned. We were still with the masses at this point and had a couple interesting conversations. Two nice ladies recognized my dad from the previous month's
Double IronMan wished me luck for my finish. It was a little too early on, but still got me a little too excited about really doing this. This is my first season of running and really committing to training for long distances and I want that sub 2 hour goal more than anything. The mile markers started giving a few people concerns. Being off by any where up to a half a mile.
By mile five I picked up a friend. Met #614, Emily, who was on her 7th half marathon and trying hard for her first sub two hour finish. We quickly decided, without speaking it, we'd work together and push to that goal...of course relying heavily on my father to help us pick up the pace when needed. I find is so awesome how many people are actually willing to have a conversation out their even when we are huffing and puffing to make it to the finish. The three of us chugged along and head to a pretty steady pace during the long stretch that ran right up along the beach. Next set of miles were 8:54, 9:10, 9:15, 9:16. Slowing down a bit but knowing we weren't off our mark...or were we? The mile markers were still giving us issues and I wasn't sure if we had ran 6.5 miles or 6 miles at the 6 mile marker.
Approaching the turn around right around the 7.5 mile mark, I was able to get down a gel (gosh those things are disgusting, seriously all flavors suck) snag a cup of water, push toward the finish and actually match right around 7.5 miles on my watch. Silly mile markers. The next 3ish miles were really exciting and helped to get my mind off of the agony of the heat. We got to pass all the others that were still running to the midpoint. Passed a friend, passed some of my mother's co-workers and got to cheer on my mom who was just about a mile behind us. I was burning up though and made the decision to de-cloth slightly to try and stay cool. My wonderful father even agreed to carry my drenched shirt just so I could concentrate on running. Clocking these miles at 9:05, 8:59, 8:59.
We made it down the coast and back into the neighborhoods and it suddenly wasn't fun anymore. There no longer was a sea breeze and the heat seemed to intensify. I seriously contemplated just stopping and walking the rest of the way. My father on the other hand thought he would stop and take a shot of rum. No seriously, at the "free rum shots" stand he stopped, told a joke, took a shot and then caught back up. What a daughter I am...I didn't even wait on him or attempt to slow down. So with that in mind and seeing him be such a sport (he doesn't drink liquor) I decided to tough it out. And tough it was. I was really started to struggle, but sub two hours could still be met. Emily dropped off a bit as well. Powered through a 9:10 and 9:13 mile but hit the 12 mile mark on my watch way before the sign.
As we rounder the corner and came out from the neighborhood, the finish line was in sight. But I knew I only had a minute or two to get there and it wasn't going to happen. I wanted to just give up right there, nearly broke into tears and broke down. My dad wouldn't let me stop though and even with wanting to quit and getting hotter by the second I did my final full mile in 9:26 and the last stretch in roughly 2:39 (my watch says this was .34 miles). We picked up the pace and pulled the last little bit of energy out to finish strong ( I totally to kicked my dad's butt by one second). Final time 2:01:06; that is a 7 second PR. Not what I wanted, but it felt good. I raced a good race and had a solid finish to my first of what should be many seasons of running.
So, yeah, a cool running indeed - I went from running my first half marathon in January and crossing the finish line with my mom to running my fourth, personal best half marathon and crossing the finish line with my father in April.
