Half Marathon Day!

Well, it certainly wasn’t pretty, but it’s over! And I finished!

Me, Kellie, and Esther post-race

I’m not going to lie – it’s been a rough afternoon. I’m pretty bummed about my final time. I ended up alternating walking and running for much of the latter half of the race, which definitely was not my original plan. And as many of you know, when I set goals for myself and fail to achieve them I am not exactly the most pleasant person. My less than stellar performance was particularly upsetting for a couple of reasons:

- This was my first race post-surgery, and I was expecting it to be my best. I no longer have an excuse for poor performance. My heart rate stays in check (and actually did the entire race!), so in my mind there is no reason I shouldn’t have kicked the race’s @$$.

- I have been diligently training for months, and performed better in training runs than I did today. My 10 mile run was a couple weeks back and I felt amazing during and after, and managed to run the entire thing at my goal pace.

- I am supposed to run a marathon in November. How can I run the marathon if I can’t even finish a half marathon?

But in the spirit of trying new things (like this blog!), maybe it’s worth trying to find the positive in this situation. I did finish a half marathon today, which is not something everyone can say! And I didn’t cross the finish line last (which I actually was concerned about, though it was probably unfounded)!

I’m now back in New York, where I'll be for the summer, and am thinking the change of scenery and new running routes will be a welcome diversion. I'm going to treat myself to a few days off from running- give my body, and my mind, a much needed break. 

And I’ll go from there. I’ve got a marathon training schedule set and ready to go. So I’ll stick to it, and hope that today’s race was just a bump along the way to the full marathon.

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