MN Half Marathon Recap

This race was a bit of a whirlwind.  I signed up only about a week in advance and didn't really have time to prepare myself mentally for it.  That might sound silly, but if you have ever run a longer-distance race, you know that preparing mentally is actually just as/more important than the physical part.

I won't lie, I didn't love this race.  I am glad I did it, but I probably won't ever do it again.  Here is my play by play:

Friday Race Expo:  Totally lame.  They made me drive all the way to St. Paul, pay for parking, and wander through a hotel just to get my race number and t-shirt.  I was expecting some booths set up with  swag, no such luck.  Normally I wouldn't expect anything, but given that they called it an "Expo"  I thought there would be more than a couple tables set up with registration info on them.

Saturday morning 6am:  Wake up, get dressed, eat English muffin with PB.

7:00-7:45:  The race was sort of a mess with all these different events going on.  3 different inline events, a half marathon, duathon, 5k, and half marathon relay all using the same course...meh.  My event started at 7:45, and actually the start line was well organized thanks to the pacers.  I was complaining to Mark before the race that my stomach hurt...I guess that was a forewarning of what was to come at mile 10...

Miles 1-5: Feeling just ok, I was struck right away by how bright and sunny the course was, no shade at all anywhere.  I was keeping a good pace though and feeling pretty positive.  Mark was waiting for me around mile 4 and he actually jumped into the race and ran until mile 6 with me.  There were a lot of fun and positive runners around me which was exciting.

Miles 6-10:  Feeling really tired.  I was surprised how tired I was, given that I ran 8 miles the week before barely breaking a sweat.  I think the sun was getting to me and the course was getting pretty lonely.  By this point, the runners had really spread out and there were NO spectators anywhere to be seen.  Just a lot of pavement.  Also, I stopped to hurl at mile 10.  Another thing, there were several long steady hills during these miles.  I for sure didn't expect that!

Miles 10-13.1:  Nothing pretty happened during these miles, I will say that much.  My hip started to really hurt somewhere around here, something that I have been praying would hold off.  I also made the mistake of thinking about how I have to run 14 miles later this week.  Mark met me at mile 12 and ran most of the last mile with me again.  I really needed it to because I wanted to walk sooo bad at this point.  Somehow I kept going and finally could see the finish line!  It is the BEST feeling, even if you are in terrible pain!  I finished in 2:24, which is not a very good time for me, but I really don't think I could have done anything different or better that day.

After finishing the race, we stumbled around a little bit and got some water.  I didn't get any of the snacks offered because the line was so long.  Then the cruelest joke, I had to climb all of these stairs to get back up to the street!

By the way, this was taken after already walking up one flight, geeeeze!  For real, who's idea was this?!

Wow, I guess I sound kind of negative about the whole thing.  I don't really mean to, I am happy I did it and glad that I gave it my best shot.  I just didn't love the course and had sort of an off day.

I am basically recovered now, I ran a few miles earlier today and could tell me legs and feet were tired because they were cramping up early on, but I think I will be fine by tomorrow :)