Well, 4 am came very early this morning. I was so anxious last
night that I got ZERO sleep. But I hit the ground running this morning.
Met Stephanie at 5 am, and we got on the road headed to Dega! We were
both soooo nervous. Drove thru the tunnel into the infield which was
WAY cool! I've never been to the Talladega Superspeedway before. It's
HUGE!! Ran into a couple of runners I know. :)
Got started and my legs were feeling good. I had no goal except to crush 2:16 so the pressure was really on. 2 of my 4 halfs I have run uninjured have been 2:16 finish times. I managed to get into a nice pace that felt comfortable but one I could do something with. I looked down and was holding it just below 9:00/ and thought WOW. I maintained a 9:00/ pace up until mile 6-7, when we headed back up the ramp and around the track again. I slipped to about a 9:10/. I was gave myself a nice little peptalk and told myself that it was actually possible that I could come in under 2 hours....that I just needed to keep hanging on to that pace. And I questioned myself the rest of the race. Can I actually hang on to this pace for 6 more miles...5 more...4 more... Dropped down to about a 9:12-9:14 and got a little disapointed. Knew that I would come in with a new PR, but I had my eyes on something else at that point. :)
So around mile 12, I did some calculating and realized if I continued running it HARD I would make the sub 2:00 mark. And that I did! I found a new energy and finished strong! 1:59:58 I wanted to beat the 2:16 so bad, but did not realize that I had way more in me until after I started. I can't even begin to describe what that felt like to finish and be totally stunned.
One thing I love about running halfs is encouraging others on the race course. It's so fun to run up by someone who is having a weak moment and motivate them to "come on and let's do this"! They are usually grateful and pick back up with their running after that. I love that! And it helps me as well. Needless to say, I made new friends along the way. :)
The rest of my race is continued in another post. I had an extra 3 miles to run today!
Got started and my legs were feeling good. I had no goal except to crush 2:16 so the pressure was really on. 2 of my 4 halfs I have run uninjured have been 2:16 finish times. I managed to get into a nice pace that felt comfortable but one I could do something with. I looked down and was holding it just below 9:00/ and thought WOW. I maintained a 9:00/ pace up until mile 6-7, when we headed back up the ramp and around the track again. I slipped to about a 9:10/. I was gave myself a nice little peptalk and told myself that it was actually possible that I could come in under 2 hours....that I just needed to keep hanging on to that pace. And I questioned myself the rest of the race. Can I actually hang on to this pace for 6 more miles...5 more...4 more... Dropped down to about a 9:12-9:14 and got a little disapointed. Knew that I would come in with a new PR, but I had my eyes on something else at that point. :)
So around mile 12, I did some calculating and realized if I continued running it HARD I would make the sub 2:00 mark. And that I did! I found a new energy and finished strong! 1:59:58 I wanted to beat the 2:16 so bad, but did not realize that I had way more in me until after I started. I can't even begin to describe what that felt like to finish and be totally stunned.
One thing I love about running halfs is encouraging others on the race course. It's so fun to run up by someone who is having a weak moment and motivate them to "come on and let's do this"! They are usually grateful and pick back up with their running after that. I love that! And it helps me as well. Needless to say, I made new friends along the way. :)
The rest of my race is continued in another post. I had an extra 3 miles to run today!
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