Well, on Sunday, November 7, 2010, in Hamilton, ON, I ran a half-marathon! Actually, according to my GPS watch, I actually ran 13.43 miles, which is almost 1/3 of a mile longer than an exact half-marathon (a 1/3 of a mile that make a whole lot of difference when you're in the last mile trying to figure out where the heck the finish line is because your legs hurt so much you're not sure they will keep moving).
I finished in 2:34:01, which makes my per mile time 11:28! This is not fast for most distance runners (my friends who run half marathons run them in between about 2hr and 2hrs 15 min), but it is fast for me! My fastest long run in training was my 10 mile (or 16km) run (which was my second to longest training run). I ran that 10 miles in 2hrs flat, making my per mile time 12 minutes. I figured that if I ran really well in the race, I might be able to stretch that 12 min/mile pace over the extra three miles given the adenaline and all that. But I actually ran over 30 seconds per mile faster even over the longer distance (which was almost 2 miles farther than my longest training run of 11.5 miles).
It was cold at the 8:30 am start of the race (not super cold--above freezing but not by much) but I'd learned in training that I warm up fast, so I decided to go with just my long spandex pants (which you can see from the photo I pulled up to the knee not too long into the race), a moisture-wicking undershirt, and my Dare t-shirt. I also had lightweight gloves for the first mile or two.
About 20 minutes into the run, I realized I was running pretty consistently with a group of three women who were also doing the run 10 minutes and walk 1 minute thing that I now swear by. So I joined up with them. It was fantastic because I've never run with people before. Running with them helped me keep my pace up, even as it got really tough. (It wasn't unusual for me to be running 11:30 miles early on, but I've never come close to keeping it up!).
I owe a million thanks to my amazing friend Jules who came out to support me in the cold. She took the photos, encouraged me, welcomed me to the finish, and made sure I put the shiny tinfoil thing on to stay warm!
I tweeted during several of my walk minutes. The tweets tell a bit of story, so I'll retype them here:
7:44 am
Run day! At the school where the race starts. Have my bib and timing chip. 40 min til half-marathon starts. #dare2010
8:29am
About to start the half marathon. Excited! Nervous!
8:53am
3k. Feeloing ok. Have warmed up. #dare2010 go dare half marathon
9:15am
6k in. Found a group to run with. Doing run ten and waljk one
9:37am
9.5 km. Running quicker than usual
9:59am
This pace is toguh but good. 7.65 miles
10:21am
9.5 miles. This is hard! Go #dare2010. 10:32am
Woohoo 2 hours!!
10:32am
Still have 2.6miles
[turned out to be closer to 3!]
11:11am
Finished my half!! 2hr34min16sec. An 11:29 avg mile and I wanted to beat a 12 min mile!! #dare2010
[I later learned that it was actually 2:34:01; i stopped my watch a little late]
And, finally, here are my mile times:
1: 11:29
2: 11:14
3: 11:26
4: 11:21
5: 11:25
6: 11:21
7: 11:39
8: 11:37
9. 11:51 (probably had two walk minutes within this mile or maybe this was the mile with the hill . . .)
10. 11:46
11. 11:40
12. 11:28
13. 11:05 (yes, my fastest mile was my last one when I thought I was going to stop moving at any second!)
14 (the pace for the last .43) 11:11
Yay!
