Charleston Half-Marathon!

I DID IT! 1:58:37

I DID IT!

So exciting! The morning started off at a chilly 37 degrees when we left my apartment at 6:30am...brr! I was wearing UnderArmor pants and shirt, a headband, and gloves. We parked at the finish line and had to take school buses to the start. Seriously thought I was going to freeze to death before we started! We got in line after taking a few pictures and it was pretty long. We had to wait on about 4 buses before we got on one, so we were probably in line for around 20-25 minutes. It gave me a chance to chat with some of the people around us, which was pretty interesting. The next race I run I definitely need to talk to more people. I'm not really a chatter, but it seemed like most of the people around were really friendly and chatty, and it was cool hearing some of the stories they had.

Me and my mom before the race. I convinced her to walk the 5k:)

I got to the start line and tried to look for Lindsey and Jen but I didn't see them anywhere (the bus situation caused me to be late to our meetup spot). I made my way to the 2:00:00 pacer sign, but for some reason all of the pacers seemed to be clumped up at the front. I'd decided I was going to find the pacer and stick with him or her so that I could get my 2 hour finish time, so that's what I did:)

About 4 miles in, my right knee started hurting. It weirded me out, because it hadn't hurt at all during any of my training. It seemed like it was more above my knee, maybe quads or something. Still not sure what it was, and hoping it doesn't come up again! That pain stuck around the rest of the race, but it was only mildly annoying:P

Since I was sticking with the pacer, there was a little clump of us there. I was kind of in my own little world, but since I don't run with headphones or music I just listened to other people chatting (ps - a guy passed me with his music player and no headphones...kind of annoying!). One guy told a funny story about being heckled by a 10 year old kid at a park ("Hey! You're losing!"), and since their route took them out and back on the other side of the park, the kid just waited for him on the other side to yell, "Hey! You're still losing!" I thought it was pretty funny anyway. lol

My personal medal. So excited!

The second half of the race I was having trouble keeping on pace, so I would drop back every now and then. Then I'd have to dig a little deeper to sprint to catch back up with them. I figured that if I just made sure I caught up after each mile-marker, I'd be fine, and it seemed to work out for me!

The only down-side was that the 2 hour pacer had dropped out somewhere around 10 miles, so I was following the 4 hour marathon pacer. When we split up from the marathoners around mile 12, I was starting to run on fumes. That was one of the roughest miles I'd ever run. The rest of the course had been on roads and pretty straight, but the last 1.1 was through a park and weavy and you could see the runners ahead of you and it just wasn't fun. lol. I really didn't think I was going to make sub-2:00:00 at that point. I seriously considered walking and had those thoughts of "Why am I doing this!?!"

In the end, it was okay. I crossed the finish line with my arms in the air (for like a second, then I was WAAAAAY too tired) in 1:58:37. So happy! At about mile 10 I had decided that my goal of 2:00:00 might have been too ambitious and that I'd just be happy under 2:10:00. So I was super excited about my finish time!

My time from the official results.

As I crossed the finish line I heard someone yell my name. I had told my mom I was planning to finish around 2:00-2:10, so I was hoping she'd be there, but I didn't see her. I got my medal and walked away from the finish line and found Alex from my PT class. I'd completely forgotten she was running too (1:44, AWESOME!). She'd seen me finish and found me after I was done, so we grabbed some snacks and went to watch the runners coming. We cheered Lindsey and Jen on as they crossed the finish, and got a picture together:

MUSC DPT 2014 represented!

I found my mom and she grabbed some shrimp and grits. I couldn't imagine eating that or drinking my beers after the race...lol. I didn't have as much of the stomach trouble as when I did the 10k (that started right after that race), but it started about 45 minutes after. It wasn't as bad this time around. I think it's just the whole morning run thing, because I didn't have any problems after my 13.1 afternoon run. Then again, it might be because I was running about 1 min/mile faster. Idk...got to work on that.

Post-Race shrimp and grits!

Even though I was uncomfortable that last mile, I'm already looking for where I want to do my next half. Depending on my Spring Break plans, I'm looking at the Georgia Half-Marathon in Atlanta, and thinking about a Half in Half (or all?) the States. How cool would that be?

Speaking of that...there was a lady at the marathon who was running the last marathon on her 50 Marathons in 50 States list. At 50 years old. How awesome is that!?! She makes me feel like a slacker!

50 Marathons in 50 States...all under 4 hours!

Needless to say, I'm now addicted to distance running. I love seeing how far I can push myself and I'm ready to see where this is going to take me!

- Jess