Bleh
Finished my first half marathon today with Annie. We ran the La Jolla Half Marathon, gah I thought I was prepared for it, but I guess I tapered down too much the last two weeks leading up to the race. I took too many race days and my nutrition was down the drain.
Anyways, here’s how it went. The race started at 7:30am so we got there around 6:50 and waited in a super long line of port-a-potties. It was exciting to see so many runners in one area and you could tell who was a serious pro. (Seriously, 1st place was 1:06! WTHeck?). So the race ‘started’ and I had no idea because everyone was walking but I started jogging and did some turns to mile 3. I was feeling really good although my pace was a slower than my usual. I took my first drink of water and I think 50% of it went up my nose. Mile 6 was the killer hill, but I was so glad when it was over and proud that I didn’t walk it. It was mile 8 that I started to feel like throwing up (I think it was the combination of drinking water while running + eating breakfast too late). This feeling followed me throughout the race which really sucked because I wanted to run my best. The rest of the race I had to concentrate on finishing and not puking, it was to say the least unpleasant. When I hit mile 10, I was excited that I only had 3.1 miles left and was determined to finish. The last mile was the hardest for me. My blisters were throbbing and I didn’t feel so good but I had to finish. It was hard because I couldn’t see the finish line and since my pace dropped so much that last mile seemed to take forever. There were lots of turns and so I’d start sprinting and when I got to the corner it just continued. Finally I saw the finish line and began sprinting downhill, it was pretty intense to me and I was so freaking excited to cross that finish line. I wanted to race with someone but no one was sprinting in the end so I just raced with the clock. I ran slower than I intended—2:29:10 gun time. I don’t know if I have what it takes to run a full marathon but I definitely want to keep running… maybe just shorter distances lol.
