My legs are toast. And I just ran the slowest half marathon in the history of my half marathons.
Didn’t even run all the way. I walked, I stopped, I chatted up the volunteers (most of them were super-friendly teenagers, way to go YMCA!).
I briefly considered sitting down on a bench mid-way through, but then I spotted a bathroom, so I just sat on a toilet for a while.
No, not for that. I just sat and wiped away sweat, is all. And snot. BabyRunner’s sniffles may have finally gotten to me.
Crossed the finish line at 2 hours 26 minutes something – seriously, slowest half ever.
Can’t say that I enjoyed all of it – as I walked from mile 8 to mile 9, I had to continuously tell myself that DNF is way worse than finishing (almost) last – but the course is very unusual for this road runner. It’s something like 60% rocky trail, 39% sandy trail and 1% asphalt in stretches of 10 yards or so (just to cross over from one trail to another). And those hills.
Here’s the flattest, smoothest part:
As the name of the race suggests, you run by a marsh:
I has hardly flying, but other things were:
And yes, you hardly ever see other runners in these photos – the race is so small that, if not for the volunteers every few miles, it really feels like a training run. One I was determined to not cut short!
Truly, a small local race, with maybe 60-80 participants overall. I hope I placed in the top 100!
Not to be a whiny road runner diva, but I do wonder if the course was really 13.1 miles, or slightly longer. RunKeeper is known to overestimate distance, but… oh well, I’m just looking for an excuse.
As for the splits. Notice how I took off for the first three miles like I was running on any old flat road. I paid for that – really, really paid for it – later.
Next up: a 10K on Nov 18, another 10K on Thanksgiving four days later, and 13.1 the following Saturday. Till then, maybe a little bit of rest?
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We are so proud of you that you were able to finish the race. You really put a lot of focus and determination during the race. never stop running.
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GORGEOUS photos – I would LOVE for you to play the PhotoARun challenge in November, we need lovely images like this
Thanks! Will check it out.
I’m sorry it didn’t go well but you’re a toughie for not giving up and you should be proud of that! I also love how you’re not making excuses or defending yourself….we all have bad days, your last half was fabulous so have a cup of tea and a day off, it’ll be better tomorrow!!!
Thank you! I’ve had numerous cups of tea, actually, those “sniffles” turned out to be a full-blown cold coming on 🙂 Anyways, I had budgeted up to 2:30 hrs for that race, so no regrets 🙂 AND the winner was a woman!! Her time was 01:21:47 – a guy came in second with 01:27:58 – more than six minutes behind her! Because the course loops around a lot and back and forth, I saw her several times, she was so amazing!