I’ve officially completed my first Half Marathon as of Saturday evening! It is still hard to believe its actually over and I finished it!
So Saturday didn’t go at all as I had planned. I was woken up around 4:30am to a strange noise coming from the wall in between my two bedrooms. At first I thought it was the heat having issues so I turned it off and went back to sleep. Around 5:30am I was woken up again by a similar sound. I then called my apartment’s maintenance department to let them know I thought something was wrong with my heat or electrical system. As I was walking down my stairs I suddenly saw something dash across the floor from the closet with the heating system in it to my bathroom. My first thought was oh my god that was a mouse. Since it was still dark I didn’t get a super close look but I was pretty positive it was. I just kind of sat on my stairs trying to get my dog to go into the bathroom to see if it was in there. Then about 5 minutes later I saw it come out from under my oven and it was confirmed as a mouse. I freaked out grabbed my dog and left the apartment.
So its about 7:30am and I’m out getting rat poison…I ended up stopping at Dunkin Donuts for coffee and a breakfast sandwich since at this point it was clear I wasn’t eating the breakfast foods I had purchased the evening before. So after a few errands and dropping my dog off at the kennel I placed the mouse traps around my apartment, grabbed my things for the race (which were thankfully 90% packed up) and left my apartment. I had a few hours to kill so I ended up getting this delicious Pineapple Wheatgrass juice from this Juice/Smoothie place near me when helped me to sustain some energy.
Around 12pm we headed down to Roswell Georgia for the race. It was little less than a 2 hour drive so nothing too bad. We checked into the hotel & then headed to Olive Garden for a carb loading lunch. By the time we got back to the hotel it was basically time to get ready for the race and head out to the course.
We took advantage of shuttle parking about 5 minutes away from the race course as the race information stated parking at the actual race start could already be full by 3:30pm. So since we weren’t planning to arrive until 4:30ish the shuttle made the most sense for us. It was super easy and very fast which was great. Around 5:15 we got lined up for the race. We positioned ourselves between the 2:30 & 2:45 pace runners.
The race began promply at 5:30 with all 800 runners starting at the same time. This obviously caused its fair share of congestion especially when we got onto the narrow trail part of the course. I didn’t trail train at all for this race and did not enjoy running in a narrow space where it is so easy to trip. It was also starting to get darker so I had to pay very close attention to where I was stepping. Running intervals were almost impossible to do with this many people in a small space so we stuck to running (slower than our normal pace) for majority of the first three miles on the trail. Finally around 3.5 we were back on a paved sidewalk which led onto the road where majority of the race took place. Basically we ran 4-6 turned left for 7 then turned back around into mile 8 then turned right for 9-10 then turned around again going the same way as mile 5 then we turned around one last time for 11-13. So at any given time there were 3 different parts of the race happening in different directions. The hardest part was watching people going into miles 11-12 when we were still on 9-10..
I felt pretty good majority of the race. Around mile 7 I could tell it was getting colder and my feet were aching pretty badly. Mile 10 felt like it went on forever since we were running down to come back so we could see how much further we had left to run. Once I passed the 11 mile marker and turned around I was beyond relieved. However as we ran it continued to get colder and colder so running in the cold was a challenge. A lot more walking that I would have planned happend miles 11-13 but we still managed to keep a decent pace.
I finished the race in 2:39:55..so technically I finished under 2:40! That was a 12:12 pace. In the beginning we were slowed down due to the trail and then the added walking at the end added to that as well. In the middle of the race we were able to make up some time which helped us finish under 2:45. Considering this was the first time I had run 13 I didn’t have a set time I wanted to finish in but was aiming for under 2:50 which I felt was very achievable. The most challenging thing for me was seeing how many people finished and ran faster than I did. I finished 636 overall out of 780 racers but only 53 out of 63 in the age division of 25-29. Not too many 20 year olds in this race so all the ones who came out were speedy!
So now my goal is to get my time down now that i’ve completed a Half Marathon. I am excited for the Disney Princess Half Marathon but know this isn’t exactly a race where people PR. So I may be looking into a smaller Half Marathon maybe in March that I could really work to run a 2:30 or less. So what am I going to do to start working on my speed?
Well keep running for starters. I’m going right into training for The Disney Princess Half which has me running 3 days per week. As I said in my previous post I’ll be doing 5 miles on Tuesday, 4 Miles on Thursdays and long runs on Saturdays. The challenge will be increasing speed on the treadmill. I HATE treadmill running and almost always run slower. The more I can run outside the better but obviously with winter coming that may be a task. I’m also adding more cross training in. I don’t feel like running is enough for me to reach my optimal fitness goals. My training plan includes a Monday Zumba Class & a Wednesday workout with my trainer. I’d also like to incorporate one more day of weight training. This may be a class my gym offers on Fridays which is 20 min step, 20 min stregth, 10 min balance & 10 min abs when I can make it to that. I also have Les Mills Body Pump at home that has different DVD’s of classes ranging from 30-60 minutes. Only problem is I only have two sets of weights that came with it and I need a few smaller weights to add onto the bar when it feels too light. So should probably purchase those. If I can keep my legs and core strong with 2-3 days of strength/cross training I believe it is going to help my running tremendously.
I can’t even believe how sore I am from Zumba last night. In my mind I always think Zumba is pure cardio so why would I keep doing that running 3x per week? But it defintely is a total body cardio/strength training workout. My calf muscles haven’t been this sore in a while. Also my arms are a little sore this morning as well. Its a different type of workout that is working my muscles different…plus it is super fun!
Today I am easing back into running with a 3 mile run. I’m not really concentrating on my pace time or anything this week as my body is still recovering from the race/Zumba! I’m just going to get out and get the muscle memory going. Its a good week to ease back into my running.
Oh and I forgot to mention my other upcoming races! I signed up for a Turkey Trot 10k on Thanksgiving morning in Johns Creek Georgia. They had a 5k, 10k, 15k and Half to choose between. My longer run that week is 4-5 miles so I decided a 10k would be a good distance. This will be the first race I run by myself so that should be interesting! I’ve also got my eye on the Hot Chocolate 15k at the end of January in Atlanta. It is about a month before Disney and 10 miles is a good practice distance.
So my running journey is continuing on with new goals and challenges ahead. I’m beyond relieved to have one half marathon under my belt with another one in the works along with some other races and a good cross training schedule. I’ll be continuing to blog as i begin my training for the next few races as I’m sure the holidays and cold weather will throw an entire new set of challenges at me. But
Savvy Living Gal 