The Half-Marathon Experience

Well, I did it people. I ran the Lincoln half-marathon and I finished. And I didn't walk at all. Ran the whole flippin way. And it was painful. But, man was it exhilarating. Word of warning: this is a long post, but I want to document all the details for my own memories :-)

I have to admit, I was really nervous the morning of the race. Which is just stupid because it wasn't like I was off to perform brain surgery or something. All I had to do was put on my Ipod and run for a while with 6,499 other masochists. Big whoop, right? Well, although I had been training for several weeks, I hadn't really been following the training plan as closely as I should have. The longest run I had ever completed was the weekend prior to the half-marathon and that was 10 miles. I was pretty scared I wouldn't be able to squeeze an extra 3.1 miles out of myself on race day. Here I am before we left for the race....


So here is how the day played out....

The race started and ended on UNL's campus in front of the football stadium. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was a cool 55 degrees at the start and around 60 or so by finish. All runners (marathoners and half-marathoners) had to line up according to "projected pace" by 6:45am. Apparently this was a record-setting year for number of participants. It was sheer craziness.

So, I lined up at the end of the 8 minute / beginning of 9 minute pace area and said a quick prayer....please, God, don't let me be "that guy". You know, the one who collapses and winds up on the 6:00 news. Oh and by the way, my wonderful hubby not only got up super early on a Sunday to drive me to the race and see me off, but he stayed for the entire race and took pictures. And ate his weight in the various breakfast items that were offered there.
Here I am on my way to line up...

At 7:10, the race began. It took an entire 6 minutes for me to even get to the start line. Then, we were off. There were people lined up all over town to cheer us on. I gotta say, that was so cool. It was a great energy booster. People had signs and noise makers and dressed up in costumes. There was some random old dude playing the bagpipes and some other people brought their speakers out of their houses and blasted music for us. So cool.

I felt really good for the majority of the run. There were some people who looked like they were struggling by, like, mile 3. I felt bad for them because, man, they had a loooong couple of hours ahead of them. But also, I had to pass the strugglers as quickly as possible because I knew that I too was going to look like that in a few miles and I really didn't want to think about it.

It was around mile 11 that I hit my "wall". I have a runner's watch that allows me to set an alarm if my pace dips below a certain mark and I felt like throwing that stupid thing on the side of the road during the last 2 miles because it kept going off every minute or so. I remember at one point I was going up a hill and had resorted to doing the "old man shuffle-run". You know what I'm talking about. It probably would have been faster to just walk up the hill, but I knew if I started walking, I wouldn't be able to start running again.

So, to make this very long story short... I was able to run the full 13.1 miles and finished 1639th out of 4812 runners in the half marathon. I met my time goal of finishing in under 2 hours...barely. And I mean barely. My time was 1:59:21. My pace was 9:07/mile. I was a little disappointed in my pace because I know I'm capable of running a better pace than that, but that's my own fault for not training like I should have. Here I am approaching the final loop (I'm in the hot pink shorts)....

Me and some girl passing me. Whatever.

And on my way to the finish line....

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention...there were two guys who ran the half-marathon who decided it was wise to dress up as Darth Vader and a storm trooper, complete with masks. They ran in full costume the whole way. And they still beat me. Show offs. Greg snapped a shot of them below sans masks.....

And here I am after finishing. The minute I stopped running, I got this shooting pain in my left knee that eventually went away by the end of the day, thank goodness. I was a little sore in the hamstrings on Monday but really the only bothersome pain I had was sore lungs of all things. I mean I guess it makes sense and all but it was a weird feeling. I'm all better today though.

If you ever find yourself toying with the idea of running a half-marathon, I say DO IT!!! If I can do it, anyone can. Seriously, I'm not just saying that. I have NEVER been a good runner. Ever. Heck, there was a time not too long ago when running 3 miles seemed impossible to me. It's amazing what you can train your body to do. Just give yourself time and it will happen. Plus, and excuse me for saying this, if there is ever a time in my life where I felt like a bad-ass...this was it...totally worth it!! And now, I am officially addicted to running.

Love,

Brooke