Half Marathon

My first half marathon experience was a tough one. It is something I'll never forget.

The race started off well. I didn't go out fast and didn't pay attention to any other runner around me. I wanted to save my energy because I knew I would need it later in the race. Until mile 4, I was doing great. The run up to and on the Ambassador Bridge killed me. The incline was steep. I continued running, but if you saw me it probably looked like walking. I knew I had to keep my legs moving.

After getting off the bridge and stepping on Canadian soil, I felt pain in left foot. My ankle brace was too tight and it was killing my foot. The half marathon had time limits for certain miles. If you didn't make it past the Ambassador Bridge or the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel (underwater mile) at a certain time, your race was over. So it was definitely not a time to stop and loosen my ankle brace. I continued running with the pain. Before entering the tunnel, someone announced the time. I was fifteen minutes ahead of the tunnel cut off time. So I made a deal with myself. If I could run through mile 8, I would stop and walk to help my foot. And that is what I did. After I passed 8 miles, I started walking. At this point between the pain of my left foot and my legs, I didn't know which was worst.

Exiting the tunnel on the US side, I started running again. I made it another mile or mile and a half before I stopped. I couldn't take the pain anymore. I unlaced my shoe and unlaced my ankle brace. I tied it looser to see if that would work. I put back on my shoe and started again. I quickly stopped again because the top of the ankle brace didn't feel right. I re-tied it and continued running. I didn't get too far without stopping to walk. My legs were dead. I walked the rest of the way.

I feel no shame by walking. I did train for this race for over a year. I did put in the time. I think if I didn't twist my ankle a month ago, I wouldn't stopped after 8 miles. My foot wouldn't have killed from an ankle brace. I probably would have walked at some point, but I don't think it would have been after 8 miles.

I did run to the finish line. Of course in a lot of pain. Once I crossed the finish line I was so happy to finally be done with the race. In all of the races I have run in, I have never been so happy to finish this one. My goal was to finish the half marathon in three hours. I missed the mark slightly, 3:01:05. If I didn't have to adjust my ankle brace twice, I would have made it under three hours.

My husband met me at the finish line and I told him that I would never do this race again. I said that I can scratch that off of my list of accomplishments. I think I said that because my whole body was in pain.

A day after the race, I'm still sore. But that will eventually go away. I know that I said I would never do a half marathon again, I don't think that is true. I want to run the half marathon again next year in Detroit and improve my time. I would like to do a race like this without ankle problems and see how long it takes. I've got a year to train for it.