This past weekend the half-marathon that I've been training and preparing for since last Nov./Dec. finally was here! I surprisingly didn't get nervous til I was standing at the start line waiting to get into our corral. My parents arrived in San Diego Saturday morning and from there we went to the Health Expo at the SD Convention Center to pick up our bibs and other race day necessities (although I had gone the day before to get mine with Pati). We enjoyed taking some silly pictures at a few photo opportunities, sampled some running "snacks", walked around the booths, and most importantly got our bib, shirt and swag bags!
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| Dad with his Elvis mask and us both with blow up guitars...rock on! |
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| The Expo |
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| The Expo |
From there we got some lunch and spent the afternoon relaxing. That night we joined my sister Molly and her bf for dinner at Sammy's for a carbo loading dinner! Then it was to home to relax. I didn't sleep well the night before race day due to all the adrenaline and frequent bathroom trips related to my pre-hydrating all day. Regardless if I slept, race day still came and luckily I still had lots of adrenaline to get me through the day.
The morning started with a light breakfast, coffee and more water. Pati came to my house and then mom, dad, Pati and I walked to the start line about 1 mile from my house. The walk there was along very empty roads that would soon be filled with thousands of runners, we even passed by the first band that was warming up!
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| Empty 6th Ave. |
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| Dad walking by the first band on the course. |
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| The super fast runners in the first corral. |
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| The start line! |
Right as we got to the start line the first corral (aka the really fast runners) were released and sped by us. Our corral didn't get released until about 1 hour after the first. As our corral got closer and closer to starting I got slightly nervous and then before I knew it we were running.
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| Pati and I pre-race. |
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| Dad and I pre-race. |
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| Rock Stars! |
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| In our corral ready to go! |
The music at the start line had me all pumped up and despite feeling like we started off too fast Pati and I kept a 12 minute mile pace for the first 4 miles. At mile 4 we hit the 163 from downtown and for the next mile and a half had a large uphill to battle. This hill didn't get us too far off our pace and we knew that at the end of the hill we had a large downhill to help us recover! Starting around mile 9 I was starting to hurt pretty bad, at this point we hadn't barely walked. Mile 10 and 11 proved to be even more difficult, the bottom of my feet were just screaming. The only problem was if I walked it hurt more than running. At mile 12 I waved Pati ahead of me and told her to finish strong since I was struggling so much. I finished just under 2 minutes behind her and then my dad was about 4 minutes behind me. I was so proud of my dad especially because he has been struggling with plantar fascitis for the past month and a half and it was killing him during the race. I know he would have finished ahead of me if it was not for that injury. We all did so well and I was so happy to beat my goal time. I had no idea I could run a 12:30 minute mile pace for 13.1 miles. We ran about 97%. It just goes to show how powerful the adrenaline of race day is! I can totally see now how running can be addicting...I don't like it while I'm doing it yet the feeling when you are done is so good you want to keep running! Weird I know!
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