Weekend Review: Flying Pig Half Marathon

I woke up Sunday morning a little nervous about how my legs would feel after running the 10K and 5K the day before. Thankfully, they actually felt pretty good. I think I owe this to some awesome massages from HTB. I am a lucky girl.

We got a later start than we wanted to head downtown. Oops!

Unfortunately, this led to me not being able to meet up with Mary, who I ran the 5 and 10 Ks with the day before. It was stressful trying to get to the start and now knowing if we would be able to meet up. Thankfully, we both had good races so at least it worked out.

I was able to find Maureen at the start and we ran almost the entire race together.

We started out fast. Too fast, I thought. I kept telling her I was going to hold back, but she could go ahead. We'd slow down for a short time, then she would be back to her speedy ways.

I was very  nervous for the big hill(s). Miles 7-9 are basically a continuous hill, a lot of it is fairly steep. My plan was to hold back to make it over the hill, then take advantage of the downhill and rolling hills to try to make up time.

Apparently Maureen's plan was to run FAST (at least for me) the whole time!

At mile 11.5 I knew I had a chance to PR.

So I just went for it. I knew I just had to keep it steady.

I kept looking at my watch (I'm surprised this didn't cause me to trip) which I rarely do.

I was running in the 7's and trying not to speed up, just stay steady.

I knew my previous PR was in the 1:53s, but wasn't sure of the seconds.

The last half mile hurt, but all I could think was that I couldn't miss out on the PR now, I had come too far.

Post half marathon, pre Original Pancake House!

My watch said 1:50:50 when I crossed the finish line!

NO

FN

DIVISION

OVERALL

DIVPL

SEXPL

6.8MI

RATE

RANK

TIME

PACE

47055

Bethany

F 30-34

1130

60/1161

309/6948

59:28

8:42

1293

1:50:49

8:28

I hadn't run a half marathon since 2010 (Stomp The Grapes) and my previous PR was at the Pig in 2009 (1:53:51). Now it's time to break 1:50 - maybe on a flatter course!

Not sure why my head looks super ginormous...

Turns out it was a 3:02 PR! Woohoo!

It was a fun weekend of running. I really enjoyed the 3-Way Challenge and look forward to more similar races in the future!

 

Maureen and I post race

This poor woman put up with me yelling at her to slow down for 7 miles, then watched me take off to a PR. God bless her! She's also the woman responsible for setting me up with HTB!

 Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now, how the heck am I going to run FASTER than that for TWICE as far?

To the track I go...