I signed us up for a half marathon mid-October, giving us about 8 weeks until race day. My first one! It was the Huntersville Half on December 13th -- a pretty hilly course (not cool), but that's most of Charlotte. I made Logan sign up to run it with me even though I knew he'd blow me out of the water regardless of how much he trained or not. Luckily, he told me this race was for me and that he would run it with me. I was really glad to hear that. I needed someone to push me and encourage me along the way, and he did just that. My main goal was to just finish the thing, but I also had the goal to finish by 2:30. I trained doing short runs on the weekdays and then longer runs on Saturdays. The longest I ran prior to the half was about 8 miles. What really killed me was the week we were in VA for Thanksgiving. I only ran one time while we were in VA, so coming home from that I knew I had two weeks to get myself ready.
My parents and grandma came down the weekend of the race to help with the kids and we had a nice little Christmas celebration with them too (more about that in the next post).
Race DAY --- It was a beautiful day. So grateful for that. I had heard that the previous year was wet and rainy. I wasn't exactly nervous; it was more like a "let's get this over with" attitude. Ha! We got there and it was so exciting to see all the other runners and their families there. There is nothing like the energy from a race. It was a great boost.
Before the race. A little cold, but it warmed up pretty quickly.
Logan and I ran the first 10 miles perfectly. We were on track to finish before the 2 hour mark (between 1:50 - 1:55). It was all going so well until I decided to stop and re-tie my shoes. They didn't come completely untied; they were just looser than normal. I like my shoes laced a little tight. Bad move. I should have sucked it up and finished the race with loose shoes. Once I stopped to re-tie the laces, I could feel discomfort and just how tired I was. I could feel my right knee was aching too. I kept thinking okay just keep going, but I was getting slower. The 2:00 pace group passed us. Dang. Logan was hitting a good spot and I could tell he wanted to keep on pace, but he slowed down to keep up with me. At this point, I was a little frustrated because I didn't have that far to go and this is the time in the race where you want to finish strong. Well, I certainly didn't feel that great. My right knee was bugging me, but I kept going. Slowing down to a brisk walk and then running again. I just kept doing that over and over -- brisk walk, run again, repeat.
Mile 10 1/2 is when the giant hill of death came. It sucked. I walked up that hill because I was just not having it. So dumb. The 2:05 group passed us. Ugh. At this point, Logan was really encouraging me and telling me to keep going. Not going to lie, I asked him to slow down a few times and stay with me. We were about a mile left and I decided I was going to finish it even if I was running VERY slowly. Mentally, I kept thinking there was no way I would let the 2:10 pace group get in front of us. So, I just stayed in front of them for the last half mile and finished with them!
It was a great feeling to accomplish something that was hard to do and something that I have had on my bucket list! I also thought our time was decent with it being our first (2:10 with a 9:54/mile pace). Although Logan could have finished much faster, I am so grateful he stuck with me. I especially loved our medals and how they lit in Christmas colors. It was a great experience and I think I would definitely do it again, but maybe with a less hilly course next time. ;)
