Good Morning!!!!! I hope you are all doing well. On Saturday I completed my first ever Half Marathon!! The Marion Arts Festival Half Marathon. It was just simply amazing!! The race itself was a pretty average race, but since it was my first half, it was the best!
Friday night we drove up to Marion to pick up my packet and go to the expo. I kinda figured since it was a small half, that the expo wouldn’t be much to write home about, and I was right. There were maybe 5 vendors and then packet pick up. We didn’t stay long. Then we headed to Olive Garden to carb load.
When we got home from Olive Garden and picked up our son from his new job Orientation I taped my food up so I wouldn’t be in so much pain from my Planter Fasciitis and then laid out Flat Amy for the race. I need more practice with the KT Tape, I didn’t do it quite right, but it still helped.
We got up at 5am on Saturday morning, and hubby made me 2 poached eggs and toast. (he loves me so much!) Then we headed out around 6am. It was about a 45 minute drive from our house. I met up with a group of runners from our local online group, Cedar Rapids, RunHappyBlog and took a group photo and some other photos. My daughter was my photographer for the day and she did a wonderful job.
So after hanging out, taking photos and then making a last visit to the porta potties I headed over to the start. The half started 5 minutes before the 5K did. Here’s a shot Abby got of me as the race was just getting underway.
I did fairly well, for about the first 10-11 miles, then I must have hit what most call the Wall. Which exists y’all. The struggle is real. I walked almost all of mile 12 after I got a pain in the top of my left foot, my hip started hurting bad and my PF started acting up slightly, even after taping it. So my walking became more and running less. However, I did FINISH and that was the important part! My friend Katherine, and my friend Anne Marie (she ran the 10K with me in March) came out to cheer me on at the end, which just really helped me push to the end!
The only thing I really disliked about the route was that they ended us on a hill!! Wha?! So unfair. I was not pleased! However, in true ‘back of the pack’ style I finished with a smile on my face! I finished with a time of 2:54:37. I forgot to turn my garmin off right away, so that’s not my chip time. They don’t have results posted yet, so I’ll have a better idea of my time in a few days. Katherine said she thought it was something like 2:51 or so.
Afterwards they had a multitude of food!! Bananas (of course), watermelon slices, pretzels, mike & ikes, granola bars etc. The best part was Zio Johno’s Spaghetti House was there giving out HUGE portions of spaghetti & bread to the runners! It was a big serving! Ralph, Abby & split it.
I am happy with my results from this race, never having run a Half Marathon before, and my longest training run was 11 miles. That last 2-3 miles were rough, but thats just something I can work on before my next Half in October. Endurance. I need to also do more speed drills, fartleks and cross training. I also NEED to lose the weight. I don’t think I’d have as many issues with my hips, legs and feet if they weren’t struggling with 50 more pounds than they should.
After the race we stopped at Walmart (which of course I was wearing my medal and bib, I wasn’t taking those off!) Then we came home. Katherine and Anne Marie had stopped at our house, after the race, and decorated the whole thing for me!! The sign on the door was the one they were holding up for me at the finish!
It was so fun to come home to that! It made my day!
All in all it was a very rewarding day and now I can say I survived a Half Marathon and had a great time doing it! I am already excited about my next one!
