Day 134: NEW HALF MARATHON PR!!!!!!!

What a fabulous race! We ran the 13.1 series half marathon at 7:00 a.m. at Oglethorpe University. The weather was slightly chilly but perfect for running. The course was different than I was expecting; most races I've run have been along main streets, so there are bands and big crowds. But this one wound through shady neighborhoods with huge houses, so it was a pretty quiet run, although the hydration stations were well-staffed with tons of cheering boy scouts, cheerleaders, college students, and other volunteers crazy enough to be up at that hour and standing out in the cold on a Sunday morning.

We were warned in advance that the course would be hilly, and for most of the beginning of the course, it was... but it was sort of rolling hills through the neighborhood behind the University, so while it was challenging, it wasn't horrible. We definitely run bigger hills on our training runs. We made fantastic time. We must have been at 10:00 min. or less per mile for at least the first 5 miles. My knee wasn't bothering me at all, so I just decided to take advantage of it while I could and really push, so that if I had to slow down later due to pain, it wouldn't be as detrimental to our time. But actually, it never started hurting. My left foot and my right calf cramped pretty badly towards the end, but my knee never bothered me, although now it screams at me every time I attempt to walk up or down stairs. Back to stretching and icing.

We were really amazing until mile 10... which was entirely up hill on a narrow path through a park until well into mile 11. We lost a lot of time there; I was actually really frustrated about it because I couldn't believe how well we were doing, and if it wasn't for that horrible section, I think we could have done even better. The end of the course was mean too... you had to run downhill past the finish line a long way, only to turn around and have to finish uphill. Cruel. But... our time was 2:14:57! That's 3:28 off of my best time, from our first half marathon last Thanksgiving, which was a much easier course. Our goal before I hurt myself was 2:!5, and even with my knee we broke that goal. Every time we passed a clock at the mile markers, I was astounded at our time, and even with our time lost in mile 10, I knew we would beat our previous time when we passed the clock at mile 11. It was exhilarating. I am soooooo excited and happy.

The after party was excellent as well. There was a live band and they had bagels, apples, bananas, cookies, popsicles, and sausage biscuits for us, as well as the usual athletic gear expo booths. And, even better, one of the fitness clubs who cosponsored the event was giving away free hot dogs and beer if you stopped by after the race. FREE BEER. There is nothing I want more after a long run than a beer... fastest way to replenish both water and carbs at a nice cold temperature, right? Conveniently, the club was on our way back to MARTA, so of course we had to stop. Brilliant idea.

I'm sore and exhausted from getting up at 5 and running so hard and not sleeping much last night because of my nerves. But I could not be happier with how the race went. Especially since I was expecting it to go so poorly. Next up: Thanksgiving Day half marathon. Next time goal: 2:10. But the two will probably not happen at the same time, which is ok. I'm going to be pretty excited about this run for awhile, so I can wait a year to set a new PR. :-)