Live Centred Half Marathon

I ran the LiveCentred Half Marathon Saturday. It was a cool and windy for the entire race. Just walking around before the race, my legs felt dead. I thought I cut back my running enough for the half, but I guess not. Besides running the half marathon Saturday morning, immediately after the half was my friend's memorial across town and following that my husband and I were celebrating our upcoming 14th wedding anniversary. So my head and heart weren't really into this race.

The race started and I was doing well. I ran the first mile in 8 minutes and was going at my pace. When we left the neighborhoods and got out into the country, we ran into a headwind for a couple of miles. The wind was really slowing me down as were all of the rolling hills of the country roads. I just kept my head down and kept running.

It seems like so many people passed me. When people passed me, they were rarely alone. It was always a group of people. I wanted to stay with all of the groups that passed me, but I couldn't. My legs couldn't go any faster. At the six mile mark, I was at about 56 or 57 minutes. Not bad. But on the back half of the course, I was dying. More and more people passed me and there was nothing I could do. I just kept telling myself, the faster I finish, the faster I can go to the memorial.

During the final mile, I was running uphill on a dirt road to turn left onto a paved one. While on the the small uphill, my legs said no more. I had to stop and walk up the hill. That was the first time in years I have walked during a half marathon. I couldn't believe it. As soon as I reached the top of the hill and stepped on the paved road, I started running again. I knew the walking slowed me down even more, but I didn't care. I just wanted to see that finish line. I continued running my slow pace and finally reached the finish line in 2:12:57. My worst half time of the year.

With this time, I know for the next half marathon to cut my miles even more leading up to the race. Maybe my legs won't be so dead before the start. Also I hope to have my head and heart in the race, but sometimes life happens. We can't always control everything in our lives. My time wasn't what I wanted, but I did finish the race and didn't get injured. So that is always a victory.