Half Marathon!

Sorry this took so long!

On Sunday, February 5th I ran in the Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon - that's 13.1 miles in 2 hours, 33 minutes and 7 seconds - an 11:41 pace.

I spent the weekend in San Jose to visit my friend Hale and run my first half marathon. I was a little nervous at the beginning, but as I said to her at the beginning of the race, whatever happened I was going to PR today!

Commence photo shoot, thanks to Hale's mama.

We ran the first three miles together, and then I decided to really challenge myself and push faster. I was feeling really good in Golden Gate Park and ran pretty fast down the downhill (which I only slightly regretted towards the end), and got to run along the beach on the Great Highway. That stretch was the toughest I think - it was a long out and back with few landmarks except the ocean and all the runners who had already turned around. Miles 7-10 were probably the hardest mentally, and my legs were pretty tired.

I felt pretty good once I hit mile 10 - from here it was only a 5k to the finish. I passed some people I had been playing leapfrog with throughout the race, including a girl in a Wes Welker jersey - Go Pats :( - and the dude in the tiger suit. I employed Coach Neal's tractor beam method mercilessly on walkers and runners, which helped. There was a hill at the end, and as we were going up one of the spectators told us the finish was just around the corner. Yeah right, I've said that line before to runners to give them hope. I didn't believe her but we rounded the corner and there it was! My original goal was to run about a 2:30 half, and after the slow start and checking my times at the 7 and 10 mile marks, I adjusted to a new goal of under 2:40.

I beat this tiger across the finish.

Past mile 12 - around the corner, up the hill and almost there!

 

Look at how sweaty my hat it. That is what I get for running in sunny weather.

I didn't get a medal (there weren't any), but I did get this sweet shirt, a sore ankle and a fabulous blister as rewards. Unfortunately, that sore ankle is persisting and now I'm trying to schedule an appointment with a physical therapist to see what I can do about it.

Victory!

Thank you to Hale's mom and dad for being such good race parents - my parents could take a lesson or two on attending my races, carrying my stuff, and taking excellent photos of me.

And shout outs to Aaren Weisz and Laura Frye  for donating since my last blog post! Less than $400 to go!!