I haven't been training as well as I had wanted to. I was sick for a few weeks and we were on a vacation for a couple weeks, so I slacked. The week before last my dad and I ran over 8 miles and that is the longest that I had gone.
So I went in today thinking I would probably get hurt, or do very poorly, or maybe die.
Anyways, we left our home state of Indiana yesterday and got to our hotel last night in Midway, Kentucky. We got up this morning at about 6 a.m. and got to the race at a little after 7, later than we wanted to.
My brother hadn't done much running lately either (he was just elected as an Indiana State Representative so he's been BUSY!) so he said he'd run with me most of the way.
We started at 8. It was absolutely beautiful, rolling hills to look at, beautiful horses running right along the road, etc. But I had NO idea that there were going to be so many huge hills! The whole course was hills, something that I'm not used to in flat ole' Indiana. As soon as I would catch my breath after climbing a hill and feeling great again there would be another huge hill to climb 10 seconds later.
The first 4 miles my brother and I were averaging around a 10:25 pace (About a 9:30 pace for the first mile and then realized we needed to SLOW down!). At 5 miles we ran completely uphill for almost the whole mile, and we were around an 11:30 pace. Mile 6 and 7 seemed to be an even mixture of uphill and downhill at around an 11 pace. At 8 I was silently cursing my dad for choosing this course for my first HM, and decided I needed to start power walking up hill or I was never going to make it. After that I completely lost track of my min/mile, because my brother ran on and he had been the one keeping it for us (He also was holding my phone for me, which is what I would normally use).
At mile 9 we went uphill for about 2 miles, and since the road was split at that point, that meant the last two miles would be completely down hill. I was looking forward to that! I did a mixture of walk/run until I reached mile 12. My legs were very tired but I knew I was so close so I trotted along.
I had no idea my time at that point, I was sure I was going to be 3 hours and I was pretty bummed. I felt disappointed!
And then at 1/2 mile left my dad and brother appeared at the side of the road and told me I was doing awesome and that I was actually at 2 hours, 31 minutes. That instantly boosted my spirits and picked my step up. I sprinted the last stretch and finished at 2:36:00.
I am overall pretty happy. Yeah it was stupid to go into it without training very well (only totaling about 15 miles/week for the last month) and without realizing how many hills there were, but it was beautiful and every other HM should seem like a piece of cake from now on! Haha! My dad and brother said that course was the hardest they have ever run.
So I feel good. I'm sore and tired but nothing is injured and the free massage after the run made it all worth it!
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