Recapping the MORE

I still cannot believe that half marathon is done or that I actually ran mK it.  I cannot believe I am saying this but I still dont feel like my body is ready to run a half but I already did.  Crazy how your mind will play games with you.

The whole experience was fantastic and I loved that I had a group of friends to share it with. And, I did it, I truly honestly did it!  I met the goal of running a 1:54 for my first half marathon.  I should say that I did this by a hair, my true time was 1:54:52 and I full on sprinted the last tenth of a mile but I freaking did it.   I averaged a 8:47 pace and was the 928th runner out of 7500 that had their time recorded.  Supposely there were 10,000 overall runners.

What makes this more special to me is that the week leading up to the race I pretty much gave up on this time.  I had had pretty crappy training sessions for the 3 weeks leading up to it and I thought I really had hurt my chances by being stupid and pushing myself when being sick.   I was 99.9% sure that I would never be able to keep up this pace and started to prepare myself to not be upset if I did not hit it the first time.   But all things aligned and I did it.

The pre race started off pretty hectic.  We all met about a half an hour early to have one last pow wow.   My plan was to run with Lisa and Susanne but they went to drop their bags off and in a sea of 10,000 people, I never saw them again until the end.   Then Lauren and I made the mistake of waiting til the starting line to go to the bathroom. We got in line at 7:40  we hit the front of the line at 7:58 for a 8:00 race start.  Thankfully Terence was waiting for us and brought is to an opening in the front where we squeezed in.  It was here that I met Sara, a girl that told me she ran a 8:40 mile.  That was what I needed to average to hit 1:54 so Terence said....stay right next to her.

So off we went and holy cow, I never have run in a race with that many people.  Sara and I were dodging people left and right.  Finally we made it to the outside where we had a little space.  The first few miles were great, I felt good and I was on the start of the race high.  It was right after the large hill next to the Harlem Hill at mile 4 that I realized we were running 8 20 miles not 8:40.  I did a uh oh in my head.  I was supposed to start out slow and pick up speed, not the other way around.  My head started to play games and I got worried that I was not going to finish.  I suddenly started to get tired too.  So I waved to Sara and told her to go head.  She left me at mile 5 but I tried to keep her in my site for the next .5 mile.  I slowed down to what I thought was a 8:50 pace but really was a 9:10 pace when I got to the next marker.  I picked it up again to get the next one around 8:40.   It was around here that I was like 'I am done, I just dont want to do this'  My legs were starting to hurt, especially the side of my hips.  I got to the Harlem hill for the second go around and slowed to a crawl.  I tried to say to myself I got this hill but it slowly reminded me of its power.  It starts with a slight incline and keeps going.  Thankfully alll my hill training kicked in and I got to the top where I smiled.....i had finished what I thought was the hardest part of the course.   The next few miles between 102nd and 72nd tranverses were good.  The crowd started to fill in and I fed off of their encouragement. 

Finally I hit mile 12 and everything started to go down hill.  I started to get cramps in both sides and was in a lot of pain with my legs.  I just wanted to stop but I just kept saying, 1 mile, you've run this piece so many times (end of race was where we normally train for class).  I also knew from the 12 mile marker that there was a chance to hit 1:54....so I put one foot in front of the other and just kept on running.   When I got to mile 13 I looked at the clock and it was 1:55. ( I knew I had at least an extra minute from when I crossed the start line initially).  I am not sure what came over me but as soon as I knew there was a chance to hit the 1:54, I took off and sprinted.   All the pain went away and I just ran up the last part of the hill.  Crossing the finish line with 8 seconds to spare and Lauren waiting to take my picture.

Wont go into detail on how I felt for the next few minutes after I stopped running but lets say it took me a while to readjust.  Was not ready for the tightning of my legs so quickly.   Lauren I walked around for a little bit, then met up with Lisa, Susanne, and Ellen.

After the run Lisa, Lauren and I went to our favorite brunch spot, Georgio's where we had a well deserved meal of protein omelets, extra spicy bloody marys and coffee.   Nice way to finish off the day.