I had so much fun at the St. Jude Marathon today! Of all the marathons I've run, it's my favorite event because it's local and for a fantastic cause, but mostly because there are SO many friends out there running and watching!
I "only" ran the half this year, which was a perfect distance for me today. I hate when people say they are only running a half, because that is still a long distance and a HUGE accomplishment. However, now that I've run plenty of full marathons, I came into today's race with a little bit of an "only a half" attitude. Even though it's still hard, and if you do it right it's still going to hurt, the anticipation, pre-race planning and nervous jitters are so much less intense for a half! If you've trained for a full marathon, you know you can make it through 13 miles even on your worst running day, so there's a little less to worry about.
Anyway... when I signed up for the half I intended to run it as fast as I could, trying to walk away with a clear answer to the question "What is your half marathon PR?" Prior to today, my "real" PR was around 1:54, but I ran a 1:47 split in the St. Jude full last year. Unfortunately, I didn't look that time up before the race to know what to shoot for! I went out fast and maintained it until around mile 8, then gradually slowed down. There were a couple (ok, several) times that I walked when I didn't really need to, or mentally gave up, but all in all it was a pretty good race for me. I finished in 1:48:29, which I was really happy with, given my level of training and current fitness. I wish I'd pushed through some of the times that I stopped to walk, but that's ok!
Justin was a GREAT spectator, watching the half around mile 7 at a friend's house. Before the race I had chained my bike close to the finish at Autozone Park, so after the race I grabbed the bike and rode over to watch the full marathon's pass my friend's house at mile 22. We had a great time cheering, and I was really glad to do it because the last stretch of the full marathon is LONG and BORING with few spectators. It was a fun day and I'm glad I ran it! I'm also amped up to train harder and hopefully pull out a good time for the New Orleans Marathon in March!
