Race Recap: Little Miami Half Marathon

Sunday morning I arrived at the race fairly early - about 6:40 for a 7:30 start. I was nervous about parking and I don't like to take chances on race morning. We lucked out with a great parking spot so we stayed in the car to stay warm until it was time to meet our friends at 7.

Mojo had a great group of runners for the 10K and half marathon.

I was extremely  nervous to start running.  I hadn't run since Monday and I just didn't know how my calf was going to react. I decided to start out conservatively and just see what happened.

I ran the first few miles with Sarah and Maureen. My calf was feeling good and the miles were ticking by rather quickly. Around mile 4 or 5 Maureen told me to go ahead with fellow Mojo-er Bryan. So I did.

I was still feeling good. It felt like I was flying. My Garmin would go from 8:20 to 7:05 - the trees along the trail were messing with the GPS signal, so I didn't really know what my pace was. I tried to slow myself down, but I just felt good. I was worried  I would run out of juice though in the last few miles.

Between mile marker 8 and 9 Bryan told me he was going to hold back and to go ahead.

I held my pace as best as I could. I kept my eye on a guy in a red shirt and just tried to stay with him. I let him get a little bit ahead of me in an effort to conserve some energy, but made sure he didn't get too far ahead.

With 2 miles to go I knew I was going to PR if I could just hold on.

The guy in red passed an older gentleman and as he went by the older guy said "Way to go, you're passing a 74 year old man!". As I passed him he said "You're doing great lady!"

This made me giggle.

I kicked it in a bit with about a little less than half a mile to go. A guy next to me looked over and laughed and said "oh no you don't". In response I said "I'm about to PR, I don't care what else happens!"

We raced across the finish line and congratulated each other after we crossed. It's always nice to have someone push you at the end!

After crossing the finish line I stick my foot out for the volunteer to clip my chip off...

and it's GONE!!!!!!

My heart dropped to my stomach and I was about to cry. I'm always a little emotional after races.

K and Sarah's husband met me at the finish and I'm pretty sure my first words were "my chip is gone". I was so focused on finding a race official to see if anything could be done, I couldn't think about anything else.

Thankfully one of the race officials looked me up and my chip did cross the starting mat. I had worn my Garmin for the race (which I RARELY do), so they set my time by my watch.

I knew I wouldn't win anything - but it was a PR and so important to me that it was official.

K asked me if my leg hurt during the race. I barely remember this, but I looked right at him and said "yeah, it started at mile 10.38".

I was so happy it didn't hurt for almost 10.5 miles. And when it did start hurting, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared it would be. I wanted ice as soon as I crossed the finish, but the missing chip took my mind off of that pretty quickly.

So, my new PR is 1:46:32.

I finished 4th in my age group (by 19 seconds!) and 34th woman and 136th over all.

Not to shabby with a bum leg!

The race was a great event, I would definitely do it again. It's on the smaller side, but well organized. The course is scenic (but not many spectators since it's along the bike path), mostly shaded and flat.