half marathon baby!

Sunday was my Blooms to Brews Half Marathon! It was suppose to be a beautiful sunny day...well it wasn't, it was cloudy and sprinkling. At least it wasn't pouring or freezing. And really it was better than having the sun beat down on your for 13.1 miles, so I guess I am glad it was cloudy. The run started at 8am. We started off a little fast. I wanted to keep a 13:30 pace. Yes I know that is slow in runner's world but I wanted to finish strong and I knew in order to do that I had to go slow.

By mile 8 I was starting to fade. I was so annoyed and pissed with myself. I knew that morning when I woke up my body was not right. It was not feeling it usual pumped up self for running. I ate and drank but something was just off. So I did end up having to take a small walk break. I kicked myself (not really) for it but my sweet loving husband kept telling me that I need to remember why I run, I am not running to be the fastest, I am not running to make it to Boston, I am running for fitness and fun. I shouldn't worry about people going faster (even though one of them was my ex-running partner), I should only worry about myself and how I feel. So I took his advice and we ran again. Well I was going about my merry way when they decided to route us off the road and onto a dirt and rocky path. I tripped and rolled my ankle. Oh boy I was in pain! Not only that but the rocks kept digging into my heel and my PF started acting up. So I hobbled for 2 miles - the worst 2 miles in my life. I thought I was going to die. I saw cows and wanted to jump on one and ride it to the finish! I was in so much pain. Once we got off that god forbidden hell of a path we ran again. I wasn't going to quit! I was going to finish this race even if my foot fell off!

I finished! I crossed the finish line! Sure it was a slow run and sure I walked and got injured but I FINISHED!!! I had an average time of 13:51 which wasn't too bad considering I hobbled for 2 miles. I really need to watch my pace next time to make sure I am not running too fast. Need to figure out how to do that on my Garmin.

So this is what I look like after the half marathon...granted this pic was taken about an hour later at Burgerville since I needed more food then what they had.

Okay and now tid bit about the course and photos!

The course was named because we were running by fields to tulips and coming back for beer. Okay so I don't really know if that is why they named it that but it fits. We started running and I kept thinking (as I passed fields with not a single tulip) where are all the bloody tulips?! Well finally at the end, like the last 2 miles we finally see fields of tulips! It would have been great to see those damn flowers a littler earlier! The route was very pretty mind you but they hyped it all up about tulips and I wanted to see some tulips!

Here are the tulips...finally!

Pretty huh? I wanted to pick some on the run by but too many people around. LOL.

Well it is rest for me to recover from my rolled ankle. I have 53 days until my next half marathon. This one is the Vancouver, WA Half Marathon. Excited!

Anyone done any races lately or in the near future?