Parkway Half Marathon Recap

On Friday night, I got off of work early to meet Jason at home to drive downtown to pick up my bib & d tag. As you can tell by my face, I was so excited to pick this bib up!


Afterwards, we went out to dinner (nope, that's Jason's beer, not mine). This was pretty good pizza.

I would have missed the entrance to this restaurant if the name wasn't painted on. It just looks like a back door to somewhere.

That night, I was pretty excited. I was able to get some good sleep. I didn't fall asleep as early as I wanted (9pm), but at a reasonable time (10pm). I felt good when I got up and ate my usual breakfast (whole grain Cheerios and coffee). I don't know how it is with any other 1/2 or full marathon, but we had parking arrival times. I needed to be parked by 6am. Which meant, I had to get up at 4:20 am and out the door by 5:30. This was so early. But I got everything that needed to be done (aka bathroom stuff) before we left.

I hit up the port o potties when we got there, so I didn't have to deal with the long lines.

It was pretty windy all day. When we got settled in some sun, the wind was just hitting us so hard. It was freezing before the race.

For the half, there were 2 routes, one for walkers and one for runners (I ran it, obviously). The walkers took off at 7:15 and we lined up about 7:35. The clock was counting down and they finally started making their announcements.

After the announcements, the race crowd was split down the center by bag pipe players and a choir (behind them, which you couldn't hear because of the bag pipe players). They walked so slow, of course we didn't start on time. It was so cold (did I already say that?) and we were now in the shade, everyone just wanted to start the race to warm up.

Finally, we were off. Jason (aka, my race photographer) had a difficult time finding me running by, he almost missed me. I was all smiles during the race (that's me in the red sleeves).

The race was an out and back course, which wasn't so bad. On the parkway, there are 2 trails (one above the other). We ran the top one out and the bottom one back. Just the last 1 1/2 miles were the same route. I didn't mind it.

I took 100 calories of GU Chomps at miles 5 & 9. I am really glad. I carried my hand held water bottle during the race and took water (only) at the stations. It worked perfectly (I was going to have Jason meet me at the half way point and change out water bottles). Around mile 8, my knee started to give me some aches. I ignored it and kept running. I can always heal, but I only have one first half marathon.

Overall, the race was pretty flat. It had some very minor hills, that were no bother. This was a very fast course, and great for my first half. I think my training I made up for myself was perfect and wouldn't change anything (except for adding in a speed day here and there).

I finished the race strong and with a smile on my face. I will post race photos, as soon as they're available. Once I saw Jason, I was so happy and put on an even bigger smile. During the race, there were spectators throughout. I've never been part of anything like that. The best part of the race was when this random cyclist was standing in the middle of the path (about 1/2 before the finish) and was cheering everyone on and giving high fives. That made it for me. His energy rubbed off so much, I just pushed it as hard as I could until the very end.

It' official, I'm a half marathoner!!! My official time is 2:15:58.

Age group: 107/226

Overall: 1171/2615

I did great and I am very proud of myself!! I wanted to finish between 2-2:30 hours and I came right in the middle (exactly in the middle).

After the race, I grabbed my free lunch: 1/2 turkey sub, 1 sugar cookie, small apple and a mini Gatorade.

Then, it was time for my free massage. It felt great!

Then, the part that I hate, trying to find my name on the list. I couldn't find it, so I looked it up this morning.

I relaxed when we got home, but was very unsuccessful at taking a nap. I was lazy and didn't want to do anything, but just couldn't sleep.

At 7pm, it was time to meet up with some good friends to celebrate! I am so happy to have these friends in my life. They understood when I couldn't make it to hang out and many girls nights. I can't wait to join them again!

I had a turkey club sandwich and a blonde (beer) to start. My next beer (I haven't had any beer or anything else for about 1-2 months) was the hefeweizen.

A friend ended up buying me the beer samples to try out. They were pretty good, but I'm not a fan of dark beer. I think it tastes like bad, burnt chocolate. Yuck! I had a great day!! Thanks for everyone coming out to help me celebrate!!

I am super happy with how I felt yesterday and I feel even better today (my knee has a little ache). I can't wait to sign up for my next half. I have my eye on a night time half in July...