OC Half Marathon Race Recap

I ran the OC half marathon Sunday morning.

It was my third time running this race.

This year was the 10th anniversary of the race.

I was so not prepared for a half marathon...the training has been mediocre at best.

I went to the Expo Saturday with the whole family.

Nothing special to report about the Expo...same old same old....

I think that this year shirt is really ugly.  The colors are aweful and for a blonde well it is the worst ..

Cantaloupe and very light green

We made a stop at the NUUN booth to say hello.  Lots of people were trying the new NUUN ENERGY. Have you tried it ?

The kids and my husband were supposed to come and support me like they always do but with a 6:15 am start and the guarantee that this would be a slow time I thought it'd be selfish of me to let them come.

I got maybe 4 hrs of sleep....we are dealing with a barking dog right now....not fun....very frustrating...I can tolerate the puppy biting and jumping..but barking no.

So anyway I got up at 3:45 am and went to Newport alone.  This is a point to point course so we needed to take a shuttle to get to the start.  I got there just in time.  Got to the starting line and waited 30 min for porta potty...the race started I was still in line.....I ended up not going....it was so nasty..I could not get in.

I jumped in my coral and we were off.

I felt ok for the first 6 miles.  Because I was not trained for this and I did not want to spend the summer at PT like I did last summer I decided to do run/walk right from the start 2:1.  I skipped the walking part on the downhill sections and I did not run any of the uphill parts.

Beautiful parts do the course

At mile 7 I felt sharp pain in my knee and I knew that walking was the smartest choice so I did that for most of the rest of the race.  It sucks but I kept telling myself that it's better that than go back to being injured.  I also kept telling myself "there's no barking here, enjoy this moment" :)

I knew I would see one of my hood to coast teammate at mile 11.5 and I focused on that "just get to Sarah".  Eventually I saw this:

I tried to think of the last time I ran 10 miles.....way too long ago obviously.

The course is mean to the runners....yes MEAN....

At mile 11 comes the longest hill of the course.....yikes.....

I knew it was coming I just did not remember how long it was...at the top I starred to run because well I do have some pride and I was. to going to walk pass Sarah...no no.

Mile 11.5 no Sarah.....I thought I had missed her and she left her cheering spot.

I kept running and soon I saw her....was nice to see someone I knew. :) 

I find it hard mentally to not have my family there...knowing I will see them at certain mile markers helps.

So I finished.  I did better than last year but still very crappy.

It's ok.

I got this nice bling 

I am happy that I did it.  I almost talked myself into a DNS.  I would have regreted not going I know it.

So it's still necessary to train for a half marathon because well it is not easy.

I need to figure out a way to move up on the priority list in my family because right now this is the order 

Kids

Husband

Dog

Cleaning, cooking

Caroline

My next race is the RnR San Diego half marathon June 1st.

I need to train a lot better.

I have about 2 more weeks of working and then it's summer vacation.

We cannot take a long trip this year so we will go on a road trip: San Francisco and Yosemite!