Half Marathon

This morning I completed a half marathon (that's 13.1 miles). It took me 2 hours and 29 minutes. Whoo hoo!!! My goal time was 2 hours 30 minutes so I'm pretty happy with that. However, I was NOT prepared for this run. I've been training for a while and the most mileage I have did in one stretch was 6 miles... that's good, but not great for training. Since I ran a marathon before (7 years ago) I figured that 13 miles was way easier and therefore do-able. My excuses go on and on.... my kids were sick this past week and I couldn't get to the gym (nevermind that I have a treadmill in my living room). Well, this morning I got up and ate my oatmeal and yogurt and headed on down to the starting line. While I waited around I realized that I totally didn't have any energy goos (little pouch of sugar and electrolytes) although I did have electrolyte capsules x 3. Other than that I didn't have fuel. I did have two bottles of water but was kicking myself because I have a camelback thing that I could have taken. I was looking all cute in my little running skirt that proved to be two large as I had to pull it up continually for the first 2 miles. Then I produced enough sweat to keep it stuck to me with the waistband folded over! Hooray for losing weight! Alas, I chafed my inner thighs since they were rubbing together (not enough weight loss). I don't mean for this to sound negative... it's simply my rundown of how the event went. Since I am running another half marathon in June with my sister I hope to learn from this one (Abby, take note!) I did fine running the first 4 miles with a 9:30/mile pace. Then I slowed down. I ran all the way to mile 6! Whoo hoo! I ran/walked to mile 8 and then my hip gave out. It does some rubbing thing that hurts like heck and gets really painful and sort of pops. From there I had to slow down considerably to finish. I do love races since there are so many people running (it's rather encouraging) and cheering the runners on. It's good energy. Around mile 10 I felt blisters forming. I credit that to that lack of time I spent on my feet prior to this run. My feet just weren't prepared for the distance and time I stood standing on them. Along the way at mile 10 someone dropped a Clif energy gel (goo)! Hooray! It was unopened and I happily consumed it and was quite grateful. :-) My amazing physical therapist brother just called me back and explained why my butt/hip hurts every time. Apparently that muscle isn't supposed to be doing the job of supporting my weight in the run, but since I don't have a strong core that muscle had to kick in and take over. The remedy: I need to do leg raises (while lying on the ground on my side) and strengthen my core (which I haven't even worked on since I had Hannah a year ago). So I have 6 weeks to improve that to hopefully prevent my hip injury again in June. :-) That same brother (Isaac) is in Virginia right now. He's running a race tomorrow... Go Isaac!!!!!!! Summary for June half Marathon (Abby!!!!!): 1. Strengthen my core 2. Do leg raises 3. Buy energy gels or Clif bloks (not a typo) 4. Wear pants that fit (not loose at all) 5. Run at least 8-10 miles in training before then 6. Run 3-4 times a week to properly prepare