No, that isn’t some sort of math problem but the distance of the race I ran this past weekend. I guess technically you could say, I’m halfway through training for my full marathon. Even though I missed MOST of my long runs due to a pesky ankle injury (that set me back 3 weeks). I accomplished TWO long runs before my race. TWO. A 12 miler then a 10 miler. I ended up walking some of my 12 miler because my body just wasn’t ready. But I’m happy to say, I didn’t have to walk a step in my race. Not even for water stations, thanks to my Fuelbelt. And thanks to Danielle, who was WAY more prepared than I was. Just having her step-by-step beside me was the encouragement I needed to finish. 

The first 6 miles were easy, I mean, we were smokin it. We were ahead of our pace group for most of that time. They sped up towards 6 miles, in order to slow down at a later point. But we were smokin’ it. Conversation was easy, no stomach issues, we both seemed to be feeling good. Plus, the course was pretty much the routes we trained. So it was familiar ground. 

Let me just set up the miles leading to mile 9. Miles 5,6, & 7 (the ones that were familiar) were either a few ft. below or above sea level…so very flat. Mile 8 climbed to about 12ft. above sea level, still not bad. Mile 9, or as they call it “Challenge Mile” saw a climb to 160ft above sea level. It was intense. 1 mile straight up. Each step was torture and I tried to keep my head down, if for no other reason then to not have to see it. The only thing that saved me was knowing it was our only hill and it was all downhill from there. We had a girl come up behind us and we all 3 just pushed each other up. Except she kept going at the top and I wanted to desperately quit. We slowed down to somewhere around an 11 minute pace, I was so disappointed in myself. But I’m going to blame it on my lack of training for this race. I did keep moving forward and that was all I could ask of my body at that point. It took until about mile 11 before I didn’t want to die…ha. I really wrestled mentally with those last 4 miles, even when I finally started feeling “normal”. I knew I had blown our 2 hour finish, but I was bound and determined to get under 2:10. 

My Garmin said we pushed under a sub-9 pace those last 2 miles, thanks to the downhill part. I then hear Danielle saying, let’s push it with about 1/2 mile left. I think I said “I’ll try”…ha ha. But seriously, she was the push I needed to finish that race strong. I wanted to quit about 5,000 times during those last 4 miles. We finished with a 2:08 time and I was thrilled. My first half-marathon was somewhere around the 2:16 time, so it was a big PR for me. I know I can push a little faster pace, but that hill was brutal. Gonna keep running strong and pushing myself. I’m starting to see the results of my hard work.

Thanks again Danielle for being my running partner these past few weeks. You have truly been a GOD send!