My eleventh half-marathon. Why do I continue to do these? I don’t even really like them. I probably say this after every race, but I’m sticking to 5ks from now on.

Anyway, for the week prior to the race, I knew the weather was not going to be ideal for a half-marathon. Ideal for a picnic or a birthday party at the park, but not for running. Not for me. I need cool, cloudy weather. Which is the opposite of what we got.

 

My plan was to run with my friend Heather, who is ten years younger and probably fifty pounds lighter than me. You see where this is going? We did a 2:1 run:walk and in spite of the weather (I mean, it wasn’t that bad, it was in the 70s) I felt pretty good. We were averaging about 12 minute miles, which was fine, whatever.

 

About a mile after this picture, when we were in the Audubon Park portion of the race, the timer beeped to run again, and I just told Heather to go on without me. She said later I looked very pale. I didn’t even feel all that bad, but I just knew I wasn’t going to be able to keep going at that pace for another five miles. So she went on ahead (and ran the rest of the way, so I’m glad I didn’t hold her back) and I contemplated having George come get me. But then I decided I would just keep going, and see how it went.

So that’s basically it. I just kept going. I ran some, I walked some. I ate some jelly beans, which I guess helped. I mean, I didn’t die or anything. Ha.

And then I finished. In, shockingly, not my worst time ever. 2:53. And in looking at my history, it’s faster than my first, eleven years ago, that I did when I was training for the London Marathon. So that makes me feel a tiny bit better.

George and the boys watched me finish, which was great, and I got a rare photo with my boys. And Millie. And Heather’s boyfriend.

One positive note was that I was not really sore Sunday or today. I am guessing that means I was pretty well trained, legs-wise, just not heat-wise. Although my legs felt really really tired at about mile 12, I definitely still had some life in them. I was just overheated. But still. No more half-marathons. Unless they’re in Alaska or somewhere that’s guaranteed to be cold. Hmmph.

As for the race itself, I was disappointed in a few things. Well, kinda. I was disappointed there were no timing mats on the course. That just seems weird. I really would like to know what my time at the halfway point was, before I lost my shit. And There were no photographers out on the course, but that was more of a relief than anything. Just an observation. But at least there were plenty of water stations, and whatever they were giving out as a sports drink was totally delicious. Yum.

One funny thing happened at the end, a woman came up to me who recognized my sparkly skirt and the boys, because she had read my review of last year’s race the day before. Love that!