Half-marathon in 2:38:11!!!!!!!!

See all those exclamation points?   I ran my first half-marathon today!  My first objective was simply to finish and my second was to beat 3:30.  A year ago I thought under 3 hours would be a good goal, and recently when I still hadn’t done all that “training” stuff I added some time.  Turns out I didn’t need to because my watch said 2:38:33!!!!  Official chip time still pending.  Update: Chip time 2:38:11.

I ended up running all of it except the water stations and the last quarter of mile 9, which I didn’t know was even a possibility for me.  The plan was to do intervals of running and walking, and I kept saying, “Ok, I’ll walk at 2 miles… well, might as well go a bit more than 3 so I can say I ran the farthest without walking than I’ve done before… well, 5 would be pretty cool… let’s make it the first half and then I’ll alternate…”  When I switched to walking for a moment after the 7 mile point I was surprised to find that walking hurt just as much, if not more, than my running stride and my legs felt heavy and tight in a new way.  So back to a jog it was.  I walked for a song at the end of a long shallow hill right before mile 10.  The last 3 miles hurt.  I finished strong for the last 100 yards, running at a serious clip with reserves I didn’t know I had.

Everything hurts now, especially my right hip flexor.  I climbed the stairs to my 2nd floor apartment like a child just learning steps: left leg up, then right leg to the same step, left leg up, then right leg to the same step.  When I got undressed to take a much-needed shower, I couldn’t raise my foot to pull off my pants so instead I bent over at the waist to drop trou to the ankle and just barely stepped out of them.

My friend beat her goal time too, finishing around 1:48.

My plans to go to the cowboy karaoke bar tonight during this 3-day weekend might be scuttled by being hobbled.  I don’t think I could drive a car let alone two-step on the dance floor.

January 16, 2011. Tags: half-marathon. Pictures, Words.