It's done anyway

So this morning was the half marathon and I have to admit that if I look at the big picture, I'm very happy with the result. If you told me before the race started that I would run 11:04 pace and finish in 2:25, I would have been pleased. However, at the ten mile mark I was on track for about 2:11- 10 minute mile pace! Or I thought at least a sub 2:20 was likely. However, the last 3.1 miles were awful. Awwww.Fullllll. But, there are lessons to be learned here, I'm going to try to learn.

1) I was clearly dehydrated. Throughout the race I stopped at 5 water stops. Each water stop had a dixie cup of water with somewhere around 3-4 ounces of water. That's only 15-20 ounces total. At mile 10 I also had 3-4 ounces of Gatorade. That's 18-24 ounces of liquid in 2 hours and 25 minutes. I had taken some hard candies with me because I was battling a bad sore throat this morning and hoped that would help. I used two, they're about 15 calories each. So, in total I took in probably 100 calories of liquid (if Gatorade's 200 cal/8 oz, I'm not sure) and 30 calories in candy. Clearly not enough. I AM going to invest in a belt with water/gel flasks for long distances and figure out how to fit that in.

2) I forgot the vaseline on my toes. By eight miles in I had blisters. By 11 miles in, those blisters had babies. They're only on my big and small toes, so it doesn't appear to be my old problem of the toes rubbing against each other as much as my toes rubbing the shoes.

3) Longest training run was 10 miles. I think that in the future I will pick a training plan that includes a run at least up to race distance, if not one with a longer run. Something happened at mile 10 and everything from the waist down cramped up, and my hips, ankles and feet were in serious pain.

Overall though, I made it. Some mile times were: Mile 1- 10:14, Mile 2- 20:03, Mile 4- 38:59, Mile 6: 58:58, Mile 9 1:31:47, Mile 10 1:42: 07, then I didn't look at my watch again for splits until the finish because I just didn't care at that point. Then I came home and had a big slice of pie. Yum. Pie.

I have to say that right now I have NO interest in a full marathon, but I'll try the half again in September and I'm definitely planning to hit this course again next year.