Friday, November 19, 2010

The Half Marathon Experience

Wow, I really suck at this whole NaBloPoMo thing. Sorry about that.

In any case, I know most of y'all have been sitting on pens and needles this week waiting for my Half Marathon blog post, so, here you go -

Saturday

PT and I rolled out to San Antonio around noon time. I managed to avoid stopping at Buc-ees along the way, which I have to tell you takes a lot of mental energy to avoid. But we had an expo to get to! We went straight to the expo so that I could check in and get my number and swag bag (free stuff). Man, there were a ton of people at the expo. A little bit overwhelming, but we managed to meander our way through.

Afterwards, we checked in at our hotel, and then headed to this hole in the wall pasta place that was awesome to carbo load! And carbo load I did!

Sunday

Sunday morning came early. Lucky for us, Jen and I's "corral" was right outside our hotel. So, we stumbled out to our corral and waited patiently with lots of nerves. Around 7:40 am, our corral crossed the start line, and we were off!

The course had some hills, but they weren't too bad. And, the best part of the course was all the people cheering us on as we ran, and the bands playing at every mile. I took it easy and knew that I just wanted to finish the race!




Here I am at Mile 8, running backwards. (PT cheered me on at Mile 8)
 

Here's Wu at Mile 8
 

If you look closely, you'll see behind the girl in the purple shirt - this is the straight away to the finish line!
 

My wonderfully supportive boyfriend.
 

My running buddy - Jen!
 
I will not forget the feeling I had when I turned the corner on the last stretch and saw the finish line. I was beyond excited and proud of myself, and got a little emotional. I couldn't even run a mile in January, and here I was about to finish a half marathon. Crazy. I sprinted to the end (because why not) and was handed my shiny fiesta medal. I was met at the end by PT, his dad and step mom and Jen's parents and her hubby Nick. What a great way to end the race! Oh, and for those curious, my race pace wasn't all that great but I was still proud and I didn't walk at all - 2h 33 min.

1 comment:

onthefritts said...

So glad you had a good time in SA. Another race in your future?