3M Half Marathon 2016

If you run a race and don’t blog about it, did it really happen?

I’ve been swamped with homework and general life happenings the past couple weeks, so this post is coming at cha a couple weeks late. Long story short: I ran the 3M Half Marathon at the last minute because YOLO. While I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, I will YOLO more this year. And YOLO I did.

The week of the race started off with little food poisoning on Wednesday from (most likely) a mahi sandwich the day before. By Thursday, I was feeling 70% better, which left me 30% dumb enough to book a flight to Austin on Friday morning for the 3M Half Marathon on Sunday. Online registration closed on Wednesday, so I had to wait for registration to open back up at the Expo and hope it didn’t sell out by the time I got there. So I basically ran the most expensive half ever by paying double because I registered late and by booking a flight two days in advance. But it was worth it, cuz this girl.

That was Friday night. My plane landed and I literally Ubered to a bar to meet Melissa and her co-workers. I also had the best Uber driver because he asked me if I wanted to plug my music into his stereo to “get the party started.” How did he KNOW?

Anyway, it took my stomach a few days to recover from the food poisoning. Any time I ate, I didn’t feel so hot afterwards.  Luckily that cleared up on Saturday, right in time for this.

My race day eve burger from The Silo on 7th. Which might change to a race day eve white rice and saltine cracker because…race morning, I woke up feeling OK but it didn’t take long for my stomach to decide otherwise. I made it to the start but the tummy trouble made it impossible for me to eat OR DRINK during the race. Thankfully it was cool out that morning or I probably would have died trying to make it to a banana at the finish.

Overall, the race OK. There were no emergency runs to the bathroom so I’ll call that a win any day. My stomach definitely affected my speed. The faster I ran, the worse I felt which was such a bummer because I kept thinking about how MAGICAL my race was last time I ran 3M. Still, I’ve felt and done worse so I’m ok with it.

I finished and that’s what counts. My medal glows in the dark, which also counts for something.

I finished in 2:17:25. Six minutes slower than my race the week before.

Post race consisted of a delightful brunch at Jack Allen’s (minus the woman who licked her fingers and then touched the serving spoon *shudder*), many mimosas and Deep Eddy peach/sweet tea drinks, and then sadness because I had to fly home. Because let’s face it, I was in Austin for the company more than anything else.

I have one more half this season coming up on March 5, which Melissa will also be running. I swear I have seen her more in the past 8 months than I have seen some friends that live in town. Not that I’m complaining!

Plan for the next race: I have no idea. I’m upping speed training and hoping it’s not to late for it to affect my race time for a race that’s in 3 weeks.

 

Shark Bite Half Marathon

Sunday I ran the Shark Bite Half Marathon. Before I get to the race, I should mention that I kept with my pre-race tradition of drinking like a fish on Friday night (no pictures) and then eating a delicious burger for lunch on Saturday.

Mac and Cheese Burger from Hamburger Mary’s. Add bacon. Always add bacon.

Race morning started off a little choppy. We were having some nasty thunderstorms in Central Florida including tornado warnings. We got a notice the night prior from the race director that the race would start, even if it had to be postponed. And postponed it was. Every time I woke up, I had a new text from Michelle that basically told me to go back to bed.

Also, don’t send me funny pictures unless you want them to be your picture in my phone.

I finally woke up for real at 6:30 and met Michelle at her house by 7:30. Then we picked up her running friends and headed to New Smyrna Beach (about 45 minutes from Orlando). Parking was easy, but then again I wasn’t driving, so it was really easy for me. Once we arrived, we met up with a few co-workers who were also running the race and got our picture on.

The race finally started at 9:30. Thankfully temperatures were on the cooler side and the sky was overcast for most of the race, because it would have been miserable running until almost noon if it wasn’t.

The race was surprisingly great considering we got hit with pelting rain during the first mile and gusty wind for the entire race. I have never been so unaware of a race course in my life. Ninety percent of the time, I was running with my head down to keep my hat from flying off. So, like this:

Or moseying. I might be moseying there.

There were a few bridges we ran over that were like mini-tornados and I thought my bib was going to be ripped off my shirt. For miles 9 and 10, we ran into a crazy headwind that really slowed me down. But other than that, I ran a really consistent race and besides some tired legs, felt good the whole time.

My finish time was 2:11:26. Not a PR, but still 15 minutes faster than my last half so I’ll take it.

Overall, I thought the race was really well organized. The course was great (even with two bridges) and they had a giant medal that was so heavy that we all had to take it off because it was hurting our old lady/man necks.

I had a great time and definitely plan to run it again next year. And I don’t say that about a lot of races. Apparently the endorphins of this race have caused me to book a flight to Austin to run the 3M Half Marathon on Sunday with Melissa. So as long as my flight doesn’t keep getting delayed (ugh), I’ll be doing that.