The Journey is Over

Today was the day!
My time was 1:55:46 so I reached my goal of breaking 2 hours! I am happy!
It was hard. I was doing good until a long gradual uphill climb for a large part of the 9th mile. That was the worst. I slowed to a crawl and lost the 3:45 pace group which I had been staying with. My mile split for that mile was 9:30. It took me some time to get myself going again. At the next water station I walked through it and kept on walking longer than it took to drink the water. I think I needed it. I saw a man pass me with a pace group tag on his back that said 4:30 and I panicked! I figured out that he was wayyyyy ahead of his pace group because there were no others with that tag on their backs.
I did not get all of my mile splits, I didn't always see the mile markers. What I did get is this:
1)8:56
2)8:39
3)8:31
4&5)17:20 (missed the 4th mile marker)
6)8:36
7&8) I got really messed up, I thought a relay exchange was the mile mark and then missed the
7th mile hit the button at the 8 mile mark so got back on track.
9)9:36
10)8:56
11)9:05
12)9:30
13.1)10:00

After mile 9 I was saying to myself that I am never doing this again. After I finished I was saying that I will run more half marathons but never this one again!!
I saw the marathon winner finish! When I finished the leader was at mile 24 and they predicted that he would be in at approx. 2:16 but he was in at 2:17. Hard to believe that someone ran 24 miles in the time it took me to run 13! I saw a couple more Kenyan marathon finishers, the first American man and the men's masters winner and the women's winner before I left the finish area. I got one of those silver blankets that I have seen pictures of! It really does feel warm when you wrap it around you!!

Last night was the time change so I got an extra hour to sleep and it was light out at 7:15am when the race started. I actually slept most of the night! I am not sure what the temp was but it was cold. I did not check my jacket and sweatshirt until 10 mins before the start. I wore light weight running pants but should have worn shorts. It wasn't that bad, I wasn't that much too warm but shorts would have been better.

After I left I could not get back to my hotel until noon because of the streets being closed. I did alot of standing around then we decided to drive around. I was riding with a friend who was staying at a different hotel but also could not get there because of the closed streets.

Soooooo, this journey is now over. I am so ready for a break from training. I still want to run but not train, if that makes any sense. I am looking forward to going to spinning class again! I will start agan next week, not this week. This week is rest my body week!

Laura, half marathoner!