That wasn’t so bad!
Two months ago I decided after over a year of lackluster running/walking that I wanted to do a half marathon again. I never saw quite the level of progress that I would have liked in my speed and endurance over the past eight weeks, but I am proud of myself for (mostly) sticking to my training plan and pulling out a not-even-close-to-my-worst time today!
This past week I didn’t run at all. Several days I felt light-headed and had chills when I got home from work, and I was actually concerned I was going to come down with the flu or something. Thankfully that never transpired, but by Saturday I was looking at doing the race after having done no running for 7 days. Oh, well!
Local races are super easy, so I picked up my bib Saturday afternoon and got all my stuff organized Saturday night, but there was no stress about the race morning process. On Sunday morning I got up and had half a bagel with peanut butter, a small protein shake, and vitamins for breakfast. And coffee!
The weather was in the high 40s/low 50s, overcast and cloudy with the sun hiding the whole time. It was pretty great running weather!
I haven’t done this race in four years, but the course was just as I remembered – leaving downtown Shreveport to run through some nearby neighborhoods before getting on the running path along the river and heading back toward downtown. I ultimately had no time goal, except at some point in the race, maybe mile 9 or 10, I decided to try and break 2:20.
I did just that, finishing with a chip time of 2:15:47. This was my 18th half marathon and I can think of at least 6 that were worse times than that. So I’ll take it!
After the race I went home, showered, and then we went to get brunch. It has been a year and a half since I’ve run a half marathon distance (and longer since I’ve run further than that), so I felt pretty happy!
Deep South Runner 