Okay, sorry. It has been almost 4 weeks since I ran the 1/2 marathon in LaCrosse. Life has just been, you know, busy. Like busy with kid stuff and no time for mom to do her stuff.
The 1/2 marathon was a lot of fun. It was a great course and the weather could not have been any more perfect. I was doing really well until mile 10. I was actually ahead of my target. I did not go into this race with high expectations - I just wanted to finish. If you recall 6 weeks prior to the race I was told by the Dr. that I would not be able to run this due to a stress fracture.
So, back to my story... Collin and I ran the first 3 miles together and then I had to let him go. I could not keep up with him anymore and had to take a short walk and did not want to hold him up. We said our good byes and off he went. I had him in my sights until around mile 6 and then I never saw him again. At mile 6 I saw my kids and that was just awesome and I was feeling fabulous at that point. So I kept plugging along and surprisingly never had the mental demons that I expected - they usually pop up around mile 6. At mile 10, my body decided to crap out on me. My right calf cramped up and I had to stop and stretch a bit. It was more than just a little cramp - it was a stop right here missy do not take another step cramp. So I stopped and stretched and walked for about 200 yds. I started to run again and it felt okay but I had to take it a little slower. Mile 11 was my disaster mile... major cramping and at one point I was almost in tears leaning against a street sign. A volunteer asked if I wanted a medic and I declined and continued to stretch... but it did not help. I had to walk most of that mile and my pace was about 15:3... so there goes my great first 1/2 marathon time.
I know now that I was dehydrated... as I said earlier, this was a great race and my only complaint was there were not enough water stops... only 5 for the entire 1/2 marathon. So at mile 11 I took on 2 glasses of gatorade and some pretzel rods... that was a big fail. I just kept telling myself "keep one foot in front of the other, don't stop, keep moving" Mile 12 came and went with a lot of walking and some 25 - 50 yd run attempts. Mile 13 was almost unbearable but dammit, I was not going to walk across that finish line.
I finished as strong as I could and crossed the finish line at 2:44:08. 653 out of 705 runners so I was not last. 48th out of 54 in my age group. I am happy with this. I know I could have easily finished around 2:20 or 2:25 but I will save that for another race.
Yeah, I think I will do another one. We are thinking about the Vegas 1/2 marathon in December.
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