Last year Chris ran the 5k for this race and I've spent all year looking at his 3rd place Age Group Award sitting on top of MY medal stand. Yes, he thinks he's pretty funny...
This year I signed up for the half marathon. I'm a little addicted to the challenge of running in the sand. I just love it.
I wasn't sure what my time would be since I've never actually ran a half marathon without a running partner. My fastest half is 2:20 and that was a road race. I expected to finish around 2:30 since this was a sand run. I impressed myself and finished in 2:22!!!
My friend Alyssa came out and ran the 5k (we did the sand relay together last month).
The race itself went surprisingly well. I started off a little fast, but quickly got into a rhythm. I averaged a 10:55 pace for the entire race. My first mile was my fastest at 9:26 (yes, I have a problem with starting too fast). My slowest was mile 11 at 12:31. I was having a tough go at the end. My back was starting to hurt, I had a weird cramping in the heel of my right foot, and a shooting pain that went from my foot all the way up to my hip. My hamstrings were definitely screaming at me for the last two miles. I took 2 or 3 walk breaks during mile 11 and told myself I needed to just keep pushing, I was almost done. Less then a 5k to go. I finished the race, maybe not as strongly as I would have liked, but I finished. Looking ahead I need to focus on a couple solo long runs to help with the mental beat down I give myself. I need to arm my arsenal with some ammo for when those miles get tough.
Well it turns out I got an age group award. I was FIRST in my age group!
I was 1 of 1!! Only competition I had was myself, but that's okay. I pushed through this race and I was proud of my finish. I ran my first half marathon all by myself, no running partners to chat the miles away with, and I was only 2 minutes off my fastest time in a course that was entirely sand!!! I'll take it!
My girl Alyssa also got an award - she was also first in her age group! We represented Team RWB quite well during this race.
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