Half Marathon Recap

The weather around here has been absolutely awesome lately, so I can’t complain… but it was kind of a jolt to my body when I went off to run 13.1 miles for the very first time on a warm and humid morning in Boston.

Yes I was sort of expecting it to be warm the day of the half…it was Memorial Day weekend after all.

However, as I’ve grown up around Boston my whole life I know it can go any way…Hot and humid or cool and rainy. 

The real problem here was that this nice warm weather only JUST arrived the week leading to the race, therefore pretty much all my long training runs have been in cooler weather…esp the last one, the 12-miler…it was maybe 50 degrees and cloudy.

The race started at 8am Sunday, and we were down by the Seaport, so at least it was a bit cooler from the ocean and the sun hadn’t broken it's way through the clouds yet.  It was humid though, and stayed that way.

I heard there were around 8000 runners on Sunday for Boston’s Run to Remember.  Brian and I got there only about 10-15min before the start and we were walking to the start heading into/against the crowd so we could only make it as far back as the 7:30 min/mile corral…DEFINITELY not us, but it was just too crowded to get any farther back.

Then before we knew it, we were off!

It was a first for Brian and I, so we didn’t push it and made sure to get water at all the aid stations (actually that’s a lie we opted out of the first one at mile 2 since it was so crowded).  Other than that I drank water AND Gatorade at every station, and most of the time took more water to pour over me :)

My mom and bff were around mile 9 with extra water and cameras!

Somewhere between mile 8 and 9 I needed to take my first walk break (aside from walking through the aid stations).  I just kind of hit a wall after going up a little hill.  Luckily the next aid station wasn’t too far off and I grabbed a free Gu!  Ew.  I like the Gu Chomps MUCH better, but figured I’d give the stuff a go…just not into it.  LOVE me some CHOMPS!

There may have been 1 or 2 more quick walk breaks from there until the last mile, but coming back down Seaport Blvd with the big crowd and making sure I had a great song on the ipod…we picked up the pace to the finish line!!

Mom and bff were also near the finish…there we are in the home stretch!!

Half Marathoners!!  Poor Brian lost his medal while we were stretching inside the expo center.

Our official time was 2:27:03!  Plus the Garmin told me I ran more than 13.1. 

Mile 9 was where we stopped to say hi to my mom and Jocy…and drink water…and pose for pictures :) 

So happy we did it!!  I don’t know about Brian but I want to do another one!  Maybe in the fall when its cooler though. 

Also a HUGE THANK YOU to Lizzy!!!  She made my awesome training plan, and while I didn’t always follow it to a “T”, it was a fabulous guide and really helped me.  Thank you Thank you!!

I’m extending the Allmenus.com/Signpost giveaway til the end of the week!!  There are 3 prizes so the odds are pretty damn good :)