Jonathan and I ran the
Mistletoe Half Marathon yesterday.
After ten weeks of training we both crushed our goals. Jonathan's final time was 2:17:26 and I think he'd said he would have been very pleased if he'd completed the race in 2:30 although his minimal goal was about 2:40. I couldn't be more proud of him. This was his first half marathon and he's only completed one race longer than a 5k. He did phenomenal!
I completed the
Wrightsville Beach Half Marathon in March. My official time for my first half marathon was 2:57:52 and yesterday I beat that time by more than 20 minutes. My final time for the Mistletoe race was 2:37:05.
It was a rough race for me. I ran with my friend Michelle from training and she really pulled me through the last 4 miles. We started out at about a 12 minute pace when we'd been running our long runs in training at about a 12:30 pace.
Here's an awful picture of us at a Hot Chocolate fun run last weekend.
We passed Jonathan's group on the loop back from Country Club and I tried to get a couple of pictures. They're not great, but I was running.
I saw that Jonathan had pulled out slightly in front of his pace group and didn't know what that was all about.
My sister was signed up to run the half again this year but came down with a high fever Friday had to back out. She PRd with a 2:07 three weeks ago in Savannah so hopefully she wasn't too disappointed that she had to drop out. I was surprised to see her at this point in the race standing there cheering for us despite her raging fever.
Anyway, we picked up our pace slightly around mile 3 and held steady at about an 11:40 mile. We hit the hills in Graylyn, Reynolda Village, and then Wake Forest with no problems really.
I saw a couple of my former students and it made me feel old. :)
I told Michelle about my three goals: one - just to finish without walking, two - to finish in 2:45 or 50, three - to finish in 2:40. She said she had similar goals.
We passed Jonathan's group shortly into Wake Forest and he'd pulled further out in front of his group so I knew he must be doing well. I'd thought we wouldn't see anyone else from our training class anymore during the race so that was a nice surprise.
When I got further into Wake Forest I thought I would die. I tanked and thought I was at the bottom of all lowness. I realize that makes no sense. At any rate my point is that was about mile 8 and then I got to mile 10 and realized that I had been wrong. Mile ten was the bottom of the bottom of all lowness.
I don't think Michelle and I spoke for the last 3 miles. She did encourage me a bit and I kept telling her I wasn't going to quit but it was rough since I was going at a faster pace than I was used to. I really couldn't have finished without her. We slowed down the last three miles and our average pace got back up to about 11:50.
When I saw this 12 mile sign on Runnymeade I was ecstatic.
Shortly after I passed these little cuties and was on cloud nine.
Michelle told me that we were going to beat all three of my goals and I got a little emotional. I'm normally not a crier but I did get a few tears in my eyes. I wish I could have busted out an 11 minute mile for the last mile but I just didn't have it in me. We crossed the
finish line at 2:37. It was Michelle's first half and I was amazed.
Here's Jonathan and I with our medals.
What a great start to December! Thank you, Jonathan, for training with me. Thank you, Michelle, for being there for me yesterday and helping me get through it.
I'm planning on breaking the 2:30 barrier in 2013. Hooray!
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