Half Marathon Number One

I'm training for a marathon coming up in November. At this point in my training schedule, my longest weekly runs are about 13 miles. Since I already have to do the distance, I decided to sign up for a few half marathons. Might as well get a t-shirt and medal for all the running I have to do. Plus, it helps my motivation to go to an event where many people are running the distance I am.

Unfortunately, it's August in Texas. Texas summers are miserable. It's hot, humid, and never really cools off. Even at 5am, it's 80 degrees. By 11am it's pushing 100 degrees. It's just miserable. But I still have to run some miles.

I couldn't find any local races happening over the summer. The closest place was San Antonio, which is just under 2 hours south of me. So I signed up for this Dragon's Den race.

It was supposed to start at 6:30am. This meant I had a 3am wake up call. I left my house at 3:30am, to drive two hours to the race. It was a very early morning. However, the organizer seemed to have some issues getting everything up and running. The race didn't start until 7am. 30 minutes makes a big difference heat wise in the summer. I was annoyed, but nothing I could do about it. This race also had a 5k, and a 10k run. Every participant was promised a medal, beer, and turkey leg at the finish line.

It's only the 5th year they've done this event, which is held at a local park. The course was challenging. There were a few pretty steep hills, and it was sooo hot and muggy. For the half marathon you had to do the course twice. Crossing a finish line, and then having to go back out and do it all over again is hard. But I did it.

 They had water stops every mile which was awesome. People were super nice and encouraging which was great too. One man and his son had water guns during the second loop. They asked every runner who passed them if they wanted to be shot with the water gun. I gave them an emphatic yes, and they proceeded to shoot me in the back. That cold water felt amazing. I was already drenched from head to toe with sweat, so this blast of cold water was very refreshing. Water guns need to happen more often on these races.

In the end I finished at 2 hours and 46 minutes. I would like to be faster, but I'm not used to hills, and I gave it a good try. I still struggle a lot with running. It's hard for me, I'm slow, and I'm easily discouraged. But I'm not ready to quit on it all together. I'll just have to keep at running and hope that one day I'll improve and won't feel like I'm dying when I'm running.

I did get my finisher medal, as well as my turkey leg. I opted out of the beer, and chugged two bottles of cold water. I'm glad I did it, and might consider doing the race again another year. We'll see.

Meanwhile my next half marathon is in two weeks, also in San Antonio. My goal is to beat my 2 hour and 46 minutes time.