I'm a Hippie!

Lindsey, Marci, Randi, Audrey, Laurie, Me, Heather

For reals.

After my ranting about not knowing why I run I think I've figured it out. It's because I feel AMAZING afterwards - not always, but at least often enough that I don't completely forget it. I finished my first Half Marathon this last weekend and truth be told, I think I want to do another one. But before I start to sound like it was all peaches and cream, let me spill my own perception of Saturday's reality.

I carpooled up with Laurie and Marci (both ran the half pregnant, btw) and was absolutely terrified. When asked if I had a time goal I was a little caught of guard because I had only two goals for the silly thing and neither of them had anything to do with time. They were simply:

1. Finish

2. Not die

I think it's safe to say that I met them both! Wahoo!! While the race was timed, I also wore my Garmin because even though I didn't have a time goal per se, I was concerned with my actual moving average. I stopped the timer when I had to stand in line for a hundred years to use the privvy so my watch time is a little different from the race time.

According to the race chip I finished at 2:41:26 with an average speed of  12:19/mile. I came in 279 out of 377 in my age bracket - aka NOT LAST!!! I don't fancy myself a competitive person, but I do care a great deal that I'm not last at anything. According to the Garmin I finished it in 2:36:46 which made my moving average pace 11:50/mile. Since most of my long runs have averaged 11:30/mile and none had been longer than 9 miles I count this as a huge success. Mile 11 was the hardest for me and I ended up walking at least a half mile. I had really hoped to not walk at all, but in hindsight I don't mind that I did. I was the last one in our group to finish and everyone was so cheerful and supportive when I finished that I was completely overwhelmed and almost collapsed into tears (That almost happened a lot through this experience).

Jim and Aeryn surprised me by driving up and being there just before the finish line. I seriously had to choke back the tears when I saw them (See? More near-crying). We hung out with the girls before heading home. As soon as we started home I felt completely sick and stayed that way for the next few hours. The afternoon was spent with me constantly worried that I was being a wimp and apologizing for being tired. By Sunday I was completely over that and starting to feel proud of myself for surviving. Today I went running again and pushed myself to cut about a minute and a half off my per mile pace because suddenly I have this crazy feeling that I can actually do this. It's funny how that happens.

It was a really fantastic day. This was a fun race and one I think would make a great annual tradition. Who's on for next year?