Well, we now have half marathon number two under our belts! And we are about 17 weeks away from our next one!  This past Saturday we ran in the White Rock Centennial Half and as we mentioned before did not really get a lot of training in before doing it.  For this post we thought we’d let you into our minds as we ran so enjoy…

Teal: This race was seriously a mental game for me. I knew going in that I could finish the race even though I really hadn’t trained consistently, but I was very nervous about what that would do to my head. One mile in I was completely off, I had accidentally turned my runkeeper app off and my music kept repeating the same song and I couldn’t get it to stop repeating. In my head I was like, this is going to be a long 13 miles if I can’t even get this stuff under control and was annoyed that my mileage and time was now off for the way that I track my running. I finally just decided to stop and fix it all after mile 1. After getting everything set I was now officially in the race. I started with my normal counting, but felt very tired, my knees were tight and I just felt like I was running heavy. The first 3 miles seemed to take forever. At the beginning I had decided that I would try to make sure I stayed between the 2 hour and the 2:10 pacers. I lost track of the 2 hour pacer by mile 3 which was slightly frustrating.  I decided that the only way to get through was literally go one mile at a time. I started to get really nervous that I had overdone the week. I had run 9 on Sunday and 10 on Tuesday, and thought maybe my body was just worn out.  Starting at mile 4 I just started saying to myself, less than 10 minutes to mile 5 and kept that up. Mile 4 was a huge tease, because they ran us through the finish line, so I felt like the race was super long knowing that I still had to make it all the way around the lake. After each mile I just said to say to myself less than 10 minutes until the next one. It worked and by 10 I felt ok, I ran a next to a trainer from my gym for about 5 miles and it was motivating, we kind of went back and forth in pace with each other, but it kept my mind off of being tired. It was at mile 10 that the 2:10 pacer passed me. I stayed with them for a while but then lost sight; I literally didn’t have much left to keep up with them. The hills were crazy and I hated every last one of them. We had run the Tour des Fleurs last year and they ran us up the same hill for this race that I had to walk in the 10k, so I was very proud of myself for making it and actually making all of the hills. The bridges scared the crap out of me too. Every time I ran on one they moved. The first one I ran across literally made me think I was passing out. It was that weird feeling you get when you miss a double bounce on a trampoline. It scared me to death and literally my heart dropped to my stomach. At 11, I seriously didn’t know if I would finish. I really wanted to walk but kept saying to myself you will be mad if you do. I had a goal to beat my last ½ by 5 minutes. I, however, decided to stop at the drink stop for the first time, I had been drinking the water from the bottle I was holding.  I walked the entire water stop; it probably took me about a minute and a half. At the end of the 11, I ran the rest and was determined to not stop even if I was running 11+ minute miles. I finally made it to 13 and I swear on everything it seemed like a ½ mile from 13 to 13.1.   I just kept thinking, you made it this far keep going, start counting and just freaking finish. I crossed the finish line and was kind of dizzy and seriously worn out, way more worn out then White Rock in December.  I looked for Beth who was just outside the fence and I looked at her and said “that has to be the longest .1 miles I have ever run!”

Overall the race was rough there were lots of hills, lots of wind, and not too many cheering spectators. The spectators are my favorite part. They literally make it easier to keep going. I kind of felt alone in this race and was sometimes bored, which makes it much harder to run.   I should be incredibly happy that my legs can carry me that far!!

Beth: We started the race right around the 2 hour pacer.  When we got started I saw the pacer and said to myself “I will not see you again during this race!”  I had my runkeeper app on during the run and it was updating me every half mile how I was doing.  This isn’t an app I want to run with regularly while the coaching feature is on.  I prefer to be my own motivator and pusher, but nonetheless I had it on.  I was talking myself through the hills and was proud of myself for keeping my miles under 9 minutes for the first 7.  It was when I got to the mile 8 marker that the 2:00 pacer passed me.  And I wanted to just break down and cry right then and there as I watched my goal pass me.  I let it get to me and I took a minute then to walk, but started again as this guy who introduced himself to me as Ryan later said, “Come on runner! Let’s go”  I started up again and ran on and off with him some – he was a great motivator for a couple of miles for me.  I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so for me when I tell you on this blog that my goal is this if I don’t achieve it that makes me feel like complete crap.  So that first time of walking I was just like “great! You know you are now going to have to blog about this!  And now you didn’t even complete the half without walking!”  And honestly, I had to do a couple more brief walking periods in the last 5 miles.  When I was approaching the 13 mile marker I heard my runkeeper app say “..distance: 13.1 miles..”  All in all when I crossed the finished line I think I had done a distance of 13.3 miles.  Thinking about my time it’s very bittersweet – I am kind of impressed I finished it just over 2 hours considering how my last 5 miles went, but I am disappointed with myself for not keeping it together and staying under 2 hours and running the whole time.  But on a positive side my favorite part of the race was high five-ing some of the kids out there cheering on their parents and the baby I passed that was at least old enough to be waving his arms around in excitement as people ran by!  That big grin on his face put a smile on my face!

 Our Results:

Teal: Hit a new PR at this race! Finished in 2:14:52, was 53rd out of 140 in her age group and finished 831st overall!

Beth: Finished in 2:06:35, was 39th out of 140 in her age group and finished 617th overall.

We mentioned in our pre-race post that Bitner was supposed to run with the half with us in December at the White Rock Marathon, but was sick and unable to run.  This was his very first half marathon race ever and we just had to acknowledge how awesome he is!  He finished in 1:44:39, was 21st out of 94 in his age group and finished 106th overall!