Tour de Pain: Extreme Half Marathon

Walking into the half marathon Saturday morning at 7am I had hoped to run in under 2:30 and was actually hoping to maybe get closer to 2 hours and 20 minutes if i was really feeling good. Either way I would be besting my previous PR by about 26 minutes and that is something to be proud of.

Tim in 2 hats and my sunglasses around his neck! Silly goose!

The morning of, Tim and I got there early and met up with his 2 friends who live there now and chatted a bit to waste time. It definitely helped calm my nerves. The weather was nice, but a little chilly and while everyone else was taking off their long sleeves I kept mine on. (I would later regret this and ran 12.1 of my miles with it off.) Before we knew it we were lining up at the line and ready to go.


This course also included the big blue bridge in the beginning and my first mile came out to 10 something. At mile 2 I watched the sunrise here. It was breathtaking. After that I got a sort of push and was teetering just under 10 minute pace.

Ran this quite a few times over the 3 races! 

Sunrise over the bridge above. 

By mile 4 I had started to follow this girl who was pushing low to mid 9 pace and I kept with her until about mile 9.5. I really credit this girl with helping push me through. After that I started to drop off severely. My pace dropped and I needed fuel. Which I got at mile 10 thank goodness, but my pace still suffered. I went from pacing in the 9's to high to low 11 at the finish.

Booking it to the finish

None of this seemed to matter though because that 2:20? Yeah. I blew it out of the water. I ran my half marathon in 2:11:40. Talk about success!! I got a PR and bested my last time by about 45 minutes! Now I hadn't run a half marathon in just over a year, but that's quite an accomplishment. I have to say that I never thought that was possible. It made this race so special and I was so proud of what I had done.

I am a champion. I am an athlete. I am a runner.

Until next time!