Half Marathon

A bunch of women from my church and I ran a half marathon yesterday in Alameda. I was so impressed with these women. Amongst them we had a woman who finished within the first 100 people (out of 2,000), one woman who had a baby 4 months ago and ran a 1:30:00 race, a mama who has a 2-month-old who ran a 2:04:00 race, and then other mamas of toddlers who also killed it. There was a trainer amongst us who ran like the wind, a long-term marathoner who kicked butt, and then there was me.

For me this was a couch-to-half-marathon type of thing. Before this I had never run more than 4 miles and that was only once before in my life and it was not a pleasant experience. I believe there were tears. So this was pretty huge for me. A friend of mine sent out an email trying to rally people to sign up to run it together. I decided on a whim to do it and once I paid the $75 race fee, I was committed.

I had trained to run a 10 minute mile, but wasn't used to running in the heat (SF is always chilly) so I slowed down a bit for the race. Miles 10-13 were particularly brutal and hot. I was really happy with how I did and insanely impressed with my friends who ran the race as well. I do think this was my first and last half marathon, though I think I'll keep up running and sign up for some 10ks.

Here's my time - I ran a 2:25:48 race.

 

This was me breathing properly for the first time in more than 2 hours.

 

Now, one day afterward I still feel pretty good. The thing that hurts the worst are my sunburnt shoulders. Dang that sun and heat.