OUC Half Marathon

What a day! My full race recap is below, but I wanted to say a BIG thanks to everyone who supported me today on Facebook and Twitter, as well as in real life.

The husband supplied me with a sweet I’ve been craving for weeks:

And my Vegan Week partner in crime, Michelle, sent me the SWEETEST flowers and a note wishing me luck!

I have to tell you, thinking about all the people who were wishing me luck really powered me through the day!

It was pretty dreary when we woke up and headed to Downtown Orlando for today’s OUC Half Marathon, so I dressed in layers.

But as the morning went on, the rain let up and I decided to ditch the rain jacket, passing it off to the unofficial photographer.

Seriously, what a guy, right? We met up with Caitlin and Megan for some pre-race hugs and advice (Caitlin’s tip to hug the corners really paid off!)

And before I knew it — the race director was counting down…5 minutes. 4 minutes. 3 minutes. I put my headphones in, got my Garmin ready and took off!

I wasn’t sure how I’d be feeling, or how fast to go out, so I lined up at the back of the 9:00/mile starters, and it was perfect. My goal for the race was to try and maintain a 10:00/mile average, and I was THRILLED to see that I got it! (click the image for a bigger view)

My official finishing time, according to the chip, was 2:11:01. Not too bad!

Confession: I don’t know how to get my mile splits off the Garmin yet. I hit the lap button halfway through the run, and I wonder if that screwed things up?

Lucas sat by the finish line to get shots of everyone coming in. He found my friend Jamie by accident — look at her go!

Speedy gonzalez…she is amazing. Then Megan came in, followed by Caitlin, and finally I turned the corner to see them cheering! Lucas tried to take a picture but hit the video button instead (you can hear him say “oh come on!”), which turned out to be even better — he caught me giving Megan a high five!

And after I hit the finish line, I was thrilled to see their smiling faces giving me hugs and high-fives for finishing my VERY FIRST HALF MARATHON!

We all headed to the beer garden where I posed with my medal:

And Lucas got his payment for a job well done — nice cold beer.

Here are my overall thoughts on the race:

• A beautiful course! I got to run through some great neighborhoods, and could see several lakes along the way. People were sitting on their front steps and lawns cheering us on and it made a huge difference.
• It really does pay off to hug the corners. My Garmin says I ran 13.19 miles — not bad, because both Caitlin and Megan ended up running longer than that.
• I took a Pineapple Rocktane about halfway through the race. This is the best flavor I’ve tried!
• Because no matter what happened, I’d be setting a PR today (and a Personal Distance Record), I tried to set small goals along the way.
  • Miles 1-3: Get settled into a groove…find a clear space for running and set a decent pace. I ran at about 9:30/mile for those first miles.
  • Miles 3-6: Keep it under 10:00/mile, keep my shoulders down, try not to stop unless I had to.
  • Miles 6-9: Keep it under 10:00/mile but have short bursts of speed every once in a while. Find a rabbit and try not to let him/her out of my sight.
  • Miles 9-10: Keep it under 10:00/mile, take a walking break if needed (it wasn’t).
  • Miles 10-12: Since each mile after number 10 was a personal distance record, I just wanted to do my best. Nebulous, but it helped.
  • Mile 13: Leave it all on the course. Run as fast as I could and smile for the cameras!

I am very proud to say that I accomplished all those goals — and I never walked, even for one step! Having that 10:00/mile reminder, and a Garmin to let me know how I was doing, really helped. I did hit a bit of a wall at about 11.5 miles in, when I just wanted to start walking. But I knew that if I could get to the 12-mile mark, the last mile would just be a race to the finish line, so I kept running! I also didn’t take any water or bathroom breaks. I know that’s kind of against running philosophy, but I really don’t like running with anything in my stomach, so I didn’t want to risk it. I did chug two big bottles of water once I was done!

My mom is so cute — I called to tell her about the race and she asked how my “girly bits” held up (I have a groin injury). They held up just fine.

All in all, a great day — I am so proud of myself and truly can’t believe that just a short time ago, I couldn’t run a mile. Now I have run a 5K, several sprint triathlons, an Olympic triathlon and now a half marathon. Go me!

And Carolyn — I am PSYCHED for the Disney half in a month…it’s ON, girl!

Time for a nap…Lucas and the dogs have a head start…