A Fourth Half Marathon...

Bees are the city's theme..so I loved my swag!

I remember when I thought doing "A" half marathon was crazy. But once I did, I caught the bug, and I have been doing various races here and there, mostly, just the distances that will earn me medals.

Only four weeks of training for the fourth half marathon, but I felt great! The night before the race, my new boot camp trainer actually called me to wish me luck, and asked me to let her know how it went. I mean,  she is not my personal trainer. This kinda made me feel awesome!

My alarm was set for 4:30 am because I was worried about parking, so what time did I get up...5:52!!! I left the house in a mere 10 minutes with a lot of "F" bombs, and had to eat my breakfast in transit.  Not a great start to the day but I made it in time, and found parking, plus my bff was there to send me off!

For the first time in my half marathon history, it flew by! I wasn't counting the minutes, and when another mile marker came up I said to myself "I still feel great!" I told myself I wouldn't stop or stretch until the 8 mile mark. Then around mile 9.5 my foot started to really bother me. It had been hurting off and on during training, but not so bad.

I finally had to start walking/jogging vs. my normal pace. I was trying to push it for a while, and I reminded myself that I'm not in this to prove anything to anyone but me, and I wanted to finish on my own two feet! I didn't want to sustain any long-term injuries!

In the end, I added about 20 minutes to my usual time, and ended at 2:50.  I attribute the pain to street running and the road being slanted. I train on the towpath trails, or treadmill, and it's always even. I'm spending the rest of the day icing and elevating in hopes to pick back up running next week!

On the upside, for the first time after a half, the rest of my body feels great! I am not stiff, or sore like usual, just the damned foot. So, progress was made!

I aim to make up those extra minutes on my fall half marathon!

I mean, how cute is this bee medal?