Travelers Rest Half Marathon

Today I ran the Travelers Rest New Year's Resolution Half Marathon with my friend, Crystal.

Here's my report:

I didn't sleep very well the night before. I read somewhere that before a big race you should try to relax by closing your eyes and imagining yourself running the best possible race. So, I laid in bed Friday night imagining myself running my best race. And then I couldn't get to sleep. I fell in and out of sleep all night. I woke up thinking about the race and fell asleep thinking about the race--all night long. I'm really not sure why I get so worked up about these races.

Anyway, I met Crystal at the start and we stood around being all nervous together. I was really excited for Crystal because this was her first half marathon. She did GREAT! She said she only stopped to walk through the water stations twice--which is even more amazing considering her longest run before today was only 7 miles. And she got in around 2:35--awesome!

So, I started off probably too fast. My dad always tells me to pace myself at the beginning, but it's just so hard. I see all those people in front of me, and I just want to pass all of them (I don't even get close). Anyway, around mile 2 a nice man named Leonard ran up next to me and said, "Hey, are you going to be my pace girl?" I told him definitely not, but I would be okay if he paced me. So, I told him my goal was under 2 hours. He had the same goal. His last half marathon was 2:01 and mine was 2:00:46. We seemed to be about the same level, so we pushed on together. I didn't think we would actually run the whole thing together (I assumed I would eventually wave him on and slow down). But we ended up pushing each other the whole way. We ran the first few miles at a hard but do-able 8:34 pace. There were MANY hills that slowed us down, but we usually ended up back at an 8:30-9:00 min pace.

Did I mention the course was hilly? Whoa! Everyone talked about "the hill" that would be coming up around mile 6. Frankly, that was cake compared to some of the other hills we encountered. It was just hill after long hill after hill--the whole way. Before the race, I told my dad about the big hill that everyone was talking about. So, he gave me some pointers. He told me to take short, quick strides up the hill and pretend I'm a boxer with my arm movements. And then on the downhill, lengthen the strides and land on my forefoot. Well, it was pretty comical watching me pretend to be a boxer. It was like watching Rocky in slow motion. I literally was moving in slow motion. But, I made it to the top and enjoyed the downhill.

Leonard and I had a few people who joined us along the way with the same time goal as us. It was fun talking to them and hearing their running stories. They all ended up dropping behind before we made it to the end. And let me tell you, there is absolutely no way I could have run that fast on that hilly course if it wasn't for Leonard. We just kept pushing and pushing each other. I would get tired and Leonard would speed up. He would get tired and I would speed up. And thankfully he talked the whole time, which kept my mind awake (my biggest problem in long races is the getting tired part). I asked him how long he's been running, but he thought I asked how long he's been married. So, he went off for a few miles talking about his wife and what they both do and they've been married 25 years, etc. It was pretty funny. Honestly, though, he was such a blessing today. I'm confident I would not have made my goal without him.

We sped up in the last mile to make it into the finish at 1:58:46 (I don't have the official time, yet). And you'll never guess who was waiting at the finish line in the stinkin' cold... My favorite people in the whole world--the Smiths! I couldn't believe it. They even had post-race drinks for us! It's nice to have such supportive friends.

Crystal and I were pretty pleased with our fabulous plastic medals (hehe) and pleased with ourselves for starting the new year off right. I can't wait for my next half marathon to hopefully shave off another minute or two...

Crystal and Lisa

Lisa, Crystal, and Jenna