My First Half Marathon!

I think today is one of the proudest days of my life :). This morning I completed my first Half Marathon, the Women's Running Magazine's Women's Half in St. Petersburg to Benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! Back in February, several of my girlfriends completed their first Half Marathons. When I was approached by another friend to join her team for this race I thought it was about time that I gave it a shot (they later bailed so I actually ended up running alone :(). I registered online and got a free 12-week training program so I decided to follow it as closely as I could and only run on raceday if I had completed the training. For me, I found it easier to commit to doing a training program rather than the actual race which felt like a mountain to climb at that time. Anyway, the training went really well - one of the biggest challenges was learning to do long runs alone since I knew Mike wouldn't be joining me on the day :( - until about week 9 when I injured my ankle. I had already started to exceed the mileage on the long runs a bit so I think it was a case of too much, too soon. Anyway, after a particularly bad run one night, I actually passed out from the pain in my ankle! I took this as a sign to take a week off and instead of giving up altogether I decided to substitute the training runs for the crosstrainer at the gym and be a lot more careful, particularly on long runs. I was very nervous when it came time for the only 10-miler during training (the program only went up to 10 miles based on the assumption that adrenaline would get you to 13 on the day:)) but I managed to do it without too much trouble at all! That was the point at which I decided that I would go for it and do the race itself :).

There were about 7,000 registrants so the bib pick up is all handled the day before. We booked a hotel in St. Pete for Saturday night and drove over earlier in the day to get the fancy bag of goodies and T-shirt.

Just a little terrifying to see my name on the list...

One of the best pieces of advice that I had was not to do anything different from training on the actual day. With that in mind, I ran in my old Newtons and promised myself a pair of these if I actually managed to finish (and ever wanted to run again :))...

We caught the sunset after the Expo and took a walk on the beach on the way to the restaurant to 'carb up.'

When we got to the hotel, there was a wedding reception by the pool. They had fireworks while Maddy was taking a swim!

To ease my nerves I got everything organized and laid out for the next day. It didn't work; I barely slept at all :(...

We woke up to leave at just after 5am. At this point I just wanted for it to be over...

Aside from all the runners wearing pink, everything at the hotel was pink, including the Christmas tree!

When we arrived I was totally overwhelmed by the scale of the whole thing. It was quite reassuring to know I wasn't going to be suffering alone. That didn't stop the tears though and I didn't stop crying until we actually started running...

I planned on taking millions of photos during the race but very quickly decided to just focus on being present with the whole experience. The course route went past several landmarks in St. Pete and there were 7 live bands. I barely even used my ipod, the spectators were just incredible and I also met several fantastic ladies throughout the race! I did get a picture of the pier at mile 8...

After 10 miles I started to feel very nervous since I hadn't ever run that far before. It was starting to get a little too hot, the breeze had subsided and my feet were starting to get really sore. My favorite part of the whole race though was running through the air-conditioned Tropicana Field stadium on the astroturf and seeing the 12th mile marker right outside! I couldn't believe how close we were to the finish but I still didn't believe I would actually make it until I had less than a half mile to go:). I was also amazed at how close I was going to be to my fantasy time of 2:30! It suddenly occurred to me that I was just about to do something that I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I was capable of and I burst into tears (again) as I crossed the line and hugged the lady who gave me my beautiful medal :). 

The start/finish line was right outside the beautiful Dali museum...

Mike was so very proud of me!

After a couple of pics I was ready to go home and get some food and rest. When I woke up later on I took a walk to stretch out my legs a bit and reflect on the whole experience. I saw online that my time was 2:31:54 which I am completely thrilled with! So what next??? I'm really not sure. I'm pretty sure that I don't ever think I could take on a Full but I'm also pretty sure that I would do a Half again. For now, I'm going to celebrate for a while and wait and see how I feel later on :)...

Memorial Day breakthrough!

Headed back to the gym on Wednesday and ended up in floods of tears after not even being able to run a mile. I decided to give in and rest for a few days to try and figure out what to try next...So far I think I have figured out the following:

1. I nearly always have shin splints after running on concrete and need at least 2, more like 3, days of rest afterwards.
2. Stability shoes and/or running barefoot doesn't seem to make any difference.
3. Landing on the fronts of my feet seems to help a little.
4. You can't just ignore shin splints and run anyway - it makes them worse.
5. Rest works wonders but you lose confidence, time and aerobic capabities.
6. I haven't tried ice yet because it sounds like it wouldn't work.

I spent the weekend reading running magazines and found an article that really resonated with me. It said that instead of visualizing a perfect run each time that you should visualize a terrible run, anticipate and prepare for set backs. This way you will have a plan when they happen. So this morning I hit the gym at 7am imagining the worst - terrible pain (I'll switch to the cross trainer), lousy time (that's OK - I'll keep it slow and be happy with being able to do anything at all), negative thoughts (I'll shake them off and celebrate just staying in the gym and sweating for 30 minutes), boredom (I'll listen to comedy on my ipod).

I had a fantastic run in the end - 5K in 33:33 and I felt like a rockstar! I even iced my shins when I got back to Tampa. At this point I'll try anything because when it goes well, running is just the best feeling ever:).

Building the habit...

I've made some great progress over the last month or so. I went to Boston for a conference and Mike and Maddy came too. On one of the days there, I actually got up first thing in the morning to work out at the hotel gym (I've never seen the inside of a hotel gym before, let alone before 7 in the morning). I was totally shocked that there were 16 people in there - who knew! I have been trying to run the block by my house (it's about 0.8 of a mile) and so far have been able to increase my distance from the end of the street to about half way before I need to stop. I'm still not really 'running' when I'm in the gym but I am forcing myself to stay on the elyptical for 20 minutes solidly. It is boring though...The weights class at work every Monday is helping and at least I'm talking to runners about running. We met Scott and the kids in Cape Cod and he gave me some really critical advice: "If you hate it - you are running too fast." So, I have slowed right down and that is really helping. When Gail came to visit we ran together at the hotel in Orlando and at LA Fitness and I can see I'm getting better each and every time! Thank you Scott - you are a great mentor!