Footstock 2011 Half Marathon Review

Its finally over!!!

My race was on Saturday.  I'm not going to lie, I have been soo nervous for this run.  Every time I would think about it, I got major butterflies.

I ran with my brother-in-law, Matt.  Before the race, we talked about our time goals.  We really would have liked to run it in under 2 hours.  Maybe in perfect conditions that would have been possible, but we woke up to rain.

I was kind of happy to have it rain, because it took a lot of the pressure off me.  If we did crappy, we could blame it on the weather!

The rain itself wasn't really that bad, but what really sucked, was that we ran the first quarter of the race on a shale path.  Every little pot hole on the trail, was filled with water.  So everyone was trying to dodge puddles.  We definitely didn't run in a straight line, we were swerving all over the path, running on uneven ground, and lots of times running off the path, just to avoid the puddles. I'm not really sure why we kept trying to keep out of the water, because at one point there was a HUGE pool of ankle deep water on the path, and no way to go around it!  So everyone just had to run right through it!  It was probably 8 steps long, so our shoes, socks, and legs were soaked.

Next there was a 3 mile hill.  I was really worried about this part of the race.  But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I did make Matt walk for a couple minutes of it.  Part of the way up the hill the sidewalk turned into a gravel road.  The road wasn't really gravely, mostly muddy.  Every step we took, we squished into the mud.  It wasn't very fun.  But let me tell you how good it felt to run down that hill, right when "Kickstart my Heart," came on my ipod.  I think we made up some time then.

When there was about 5 km left, I started to get really tired.  I'm happy Matt was with me, other wise I would have taken more walking breaks.  He really should have left me, but I'm happy that he didn't. 

This is us almost at the finish line.  We could not have been any wetter.  We were freezing, and our fingers were numb, but we did it!!  Our final time was 2:06:18.  We were 6 minutes over our goal time, but I still feel really good with how we did!  Over all we were 91 and 92 out of 206 runners, and in my age category (30-39), I was 14 out of 35. 

You might be wondering how my knee held up.  During the race I didn't feel a thing.  Taking the week before off, was a good idea.  After the run, we changed into some dry clothes, and tried to warm up.  We didn't stretch until we got back to Matt's parents house, and let me tell you, my knee has never hurt so bad!  I was limping around all day.  To put any pressure on it, made me want to burst into tears. 

The next morning, same thing!  It really hurt.  Luckily Joan came over that afternoon, and worked her magic on me.  Shes a massage therapist, and rubbed my leg for about 45 minutes, and afterwards it felt SO MUCH BETTER!  I was amazed!

Now my leg is still sore, and I'm limping a bit, and I think after a few more days break, I'll be able to run again.

All in all, I feel really good about this run.  Running the actual race was tiring, but not as bad as I thought it would be.  I'm really happy I stuck with my training schedule.  Ive always thought it would be a big accomplishment to do a half marathon, and I'm proud of myself for sticking to it, and finishing.  I have a few friends running another one in October, and yes, I am considering joining them!