Half Marathon!

I finished my first half marathon this weekend!

Woohoo!

I started training for the half marathon earlier this summer - I did a 4 mile race locally in April, and decided if I could run 4 miles, I could do 5, then 6... and went from there! I joined a meetup group in July that meets at a trail every Saturday to do long runs, then goes out for breakfast, and there I've met some cool people who also like to run (mostly a lot faster than me). As they're all more experienced runners, they've been able to help me adjust my training and give me great tips for running in races and longer runs. They also hold me accountable - just knowing there's a group there that I signed up for gets me up out of my bed eaaaarly on Saturday mornings, which I doubt I would do on my own.

I was going to start with a half marathon in San Francisco in November, but they convinced me to sign up for the half marathon locally in San Jose last Sunday. I'm glad I did!

(Me, second to the right, with some others from my running group after the race!)

So here's the rundown for my first half marathon:

Time: 2:25.57
Pace: 11:08 min/mi
Place: 5993/10263

The hardest and slowest time for me was definitely miles 10-12, I maintained under an 11 minute mile before then, but couldn't at that time. I pushed myself for my last mile to back under 11 minute miles, although not too hard, since I felt like I was maaaaybe going to vom a little if I ran too fast.

And then I finished! And I didn't feel all that awesome until about one hour, two water bottles, a mini jamba juice, a chocolate milk, and a lot of walking and stretching later. And then it was awesome!

Dad and I after the half! He says he'll start half-marathon/marathon training again with me after he retires in 4 years or so...

I'm really proud of finishing and finishing well - I'm looking forward to my next one in November in SF!

One of the best parts of long-distance running? Eating, duh. I refer first to this amazing post from The Oatmeal. Also, see picture below: Happy girl with a fabulous frou-frou drink at dinner! Plus we had ice cream and this delicious s'mores brownie concoction (sadly, no pics...) and the 49ers won, so I was quite happy indeed.