1/2 Marathon Recap

1/2 Marathon Recap

*This is a very long post dedicated to my half marathon. If you aren't particularly interested in running or a race recap you probably will want to skip it!

On October 9, 2011 I became a half marathoner!!!! Something I thought I would never, ever say! Something I never thought I would want to say. But right now, I couldn't be more proud of myself or more happy. I ran 13.1 miles!!!!I did it!

I took off nearly a year of run running when I was pregnant with Dawson. I knew that I wanted to get back into it once I was allowed to run again. It took me awhile to get back to where I was before I got pregnant, but I did it. In the beginning I focused on 5ks and speed. I ran several 5k's this summer and actually surpassed all of my speed goals. I wanted to challenge myself in a new way. While training for my 10k, I started doing longer runs. I found myself really enjoying longer runs. I started toying with the idea of doing a half marathon. I never in a million, billion years thought that thought would cross my mind. I talked with my sister about it and she agreed she would like to try one too. After realizing that our top two choices of the Disneyworld Princess 1/2 Marathon and Vegas 1/2 Marathon weren't feasible because of expensive, we set our sights a little closer. Katy did some research and we found the Denver Rock and Roll Half Marathon. We thought it would be a great choice for our first 1/2.

We researched training plans and found a ten week plan. We knew that we would have to remain pretty disciplined. It was pretty hard to stick with it at times because of the time commitment. We had to do one long run a week that took about 1 1/2 hours. We still managed to wake up at 6:00 a.m. every Sunday and went out and ran. Katy and I found ourselves really enjoying our runs together. We ran at a pace that allowed for us to talk and just enjoy the run. We both started to really look forward to our runs together. We really did an awesome job of sticking to the training plan. Things got a little messed up because I was nursing an injury during a big chunk of our training, but we managed to get through it and we were finally ready for a 1/2 marathon.

The half marathon experience is so vastly different from an 5k or 10k I have ever ran. I am used to running races with 1,000 people tops. This race had 15,000 people! Katy and I headed up to Denver on Saturday afternoon. On Saturday morning, we woke up to snow. We knew we still had to get up to Denver because we had to pick up all of our race stuff that day.The drive up wasn't pleasant at all. We managed to get through it and made it to our hotel. We parked and walked over to the Convention Center where the expo was being held.

The expo was a lot of fun. We were able to quickly get our bibs, shirts, and bags. I had found out the day before that my favorite runner, Kara Goucher was going to be at the expo. I was beyond excited. She has a book for women all about running. She had her son about a year ago and has some great info for getting back into running. The girl is probably the best American women runner right now. She is incredibly fast. I just love her and was dying for a chance to meet her. Katy and I jumped in line just in time because right after we got in line they closed the line. We were lucky! We had her sign our books and took a picture with her. She was so nice! Her husband who is also a famous runner went to my high school. Some of my brother's friends ran with him and we were able to talk to Kara and Adam about that. Katy and I felt so lucky to get a chance to meet such incredibly talented and amazing runners. After that, we walked around a bit and sampled lots of neat running products. We then left and walked back to our hotel.

Katy picked a hotel with a great location. We parked the car and were able to walk every where after that. We checked into our hotel and we were very impressed with our room. We got settled a bit and then decided to head to dinner. We were staying a block away from the 16th street mall. We decided that we would go to Magiannos for dinner. We got there at 5:15 and were told there was a 2 1/2 hour wait!!! I guess lots of other racers were also carb loading before the race. I figured we could beat the rush by going early, but I think everyone else wanted to go early too so they could get to bed at a decent time. We were actually able to snag a table at the bar and only waited about 20 minutes. We had an amazing meal that was so good. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel. We got all of our gear organized and set out. We were feeling a little nervous, but mainly excited. We were asleep by 10:00.

Our alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. It was very easy to get up because we were so excited. We got ready and headed to the race. We had to walk about 5 blocks to get to the race. We could not believe the amount of people that were there. It was just unlike any race we had ever been at. We quickly realized that in our haste that morning we had forgotten a couple of important things, but there was nothing we could do. Joey, Dawson, Ashlyn, Bryan, Ella, and Steven met us a couple of minutes before we had to go to our corral. They got up so early to make it up there before the race. It was so nice of them to come support us. I know it meant a lot to both of us. Bryan and Joey have been so supportive in our running. We literally could not have done it without their help and support. It was nice because they took our bags and we didn't have to bother with gear check. Katy and I then made our way to our corral which involved moving through a gigantic mob of people. We can now say we know what cattle feel like. We had to wait about 20 minutes from when the race officially started to actually get to the start line. Being at the starting line was so exciting.

The race itself could not have gone any better. We got to race through most of downtown Denver. It was the neatest route. Since it was a Rock and Roll marathon, there were bands performing every mile or so. The first few miles, we took it slow and didn't listen to music and just talked. We then decided that we wanted to speed up a bit. At mile 4 or so we cranked up our music and really started to run faster. The miles went by very quickly. I never once got bored or had a feeling like it was getting hard. I just got into my music and focused on running. There were lots of spectators and we were entertained by all of the signs people were holding up. There were funny ones, inspirational ones (my favorite was "Pain is temporary, pride lasts a lifetime), and even sweet ones (a guy was holding a sign proposing to his girlfriend). Around mile 10 I knew that I was going to do this! We decided to really run fast around mile 12 and sprinted towards the finish line. There were so many people around the finish line and crossing that line was the best feeling in the world! After we crossed, we got our medals and grabbed some food and water. We quickly found our family and were able to reunite with them. We finished in 2:14. Our goal was 2:30, so we were very happy with our time. We probably could have done a little faster, but we wanted to focus on finishing and not speed for our first one. We didn't walk one single time and that is quite an accomplishment since we saw A LOT of people walking. We felt amazing all day Sunday. Talk about the ultimate runner's high. Katy and I are already addicted to half marathons and can not wait to do our next one! We just have to decide which one we want to do. Here are some pictures. I wrote a lot, but I really wanted to be able to come back and read this and remember exactly what it was like.

This was the weather in Denver.  Luckily, it was only raining in Denver and not snowing. 

The entrance to the expo

Katy and I with Kara Goucher

Our hotel room was very nice

All of our gear ready for the morning.

Getting ready to head to our corral.  It was pretty cold.  I wish it would have been about 10 degrees warmer that day. 

Getting ready to go.

Dawson supporting his Mama. 

The start line

Our cheering section

We are pretty easy to spot :)

This gives you a little idea of the sea of people

This was the first mile

The course was so scenic.

Katy running

Myself running

The guy greeted us around mile 10.

Here we are after the race.  These little blankets worked amazingly well at warming us up!

Showing off our medals

Yay!!! We did it!  There is no one in this world that I would have rather shared this whole experience with.  I am so grateful for my sister. 

Joey caught me mid-laugh

 

Posing with my future little runner