August 12, 2007

I did it!!! First ½ Marathon!! (insert happy dance here Woo-Hoo!!)

This morning was the Chicago Distance Classic and while there’s a strong possibility it’s due to a runner’s high, I never thought I’d run 13.1 miles and have this big of a smile on my face!! (Still doing the happy dance)

It wasn’t all smooth sailing; I did hit a few speed bumps. The first slight problem was around mile six…my iPod ran out of juice. After I quit swearing, I started singing to myself in my head. (Did you know “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and the “Alphabet Song” have the same tune? My profound discovery around mile 7). The second came between miles nine and ten...my lungs decided that they had had enough. If I didn’t slow down to walk they were going to revolt with an asthma attack. While my legs wanted to keep going, I decided that a nice little walk break was in order. The last problem didn’t present itself until much later in the day…the sun wasn’t up at 4:30 when I woke up, but sunblock would have been a really smart choice (not that my sports bra burn line isn’t sexy). Two out of three of those bumps are fixable… Memo to me: 1) Charge iPod, 2) Slather on the SPF.

I finished the race in 2:50:59. I really did want it to be under 2:45…but my lungs didn’t agree. All well, there’s always next time!! On yet another side tangent, I realized today that I’ve run 101K in races this year. That’s 62.62 miles! I haven’t decided if I want to add up all my training runs with that too…

It was a great race! Thank you to everyone who sent their advice and well wishes for this race…as well as telling me that I’d do all right (Chris) and not die (Barb) or even that I’m crazy (Mom). I’m a little sad I have to wait until January before I run one again. But until then I have a big honkin’ penguin medal, a little bit of bragging rights, and an excuse to keep doing the happy dance!