I am officially a half-marathon runner. Earlier today I crossed the finish line and completed a huge goal for the year. The race started at 7:20am, and I had butterflies in my stomach all morning. It didn't help that I ended up leaving my house late so I was worried about making it there in time. I literally arrived 10 minutes before the race was about to start. So I drank some water, did some quick stretching, and got in line for the start.
The start was very simple. Someone did a small countdown on some loud speakers and then the race started. I placed my towards the back of the runners, since I wanted to pace myself and because I didn't want to get in anyones way. I started off with a very slow jog since there were so many runners. I would say the first half mile or so it was very slow because it was so crowded with runners, but after that people started breaking away. Everyone came to this random dirt hill and was unsure where to go, I saw some people turning around and saying go the other way. But 98% of the people decided to go down the dirt hill anyways. But apparently that wasn't the right way to go....but everyone forged ahead anyways until we found a paved road.
I saw women passing me up left and right and I kept telling myself "pace yourself, regardless of what speed other people are doing". I remember seeing the sign for the 1 mile marker and thinking to myself "WHAT?" I of course was tracking my run with the runkeeper app, and as I hit the 1 mile marker my runkeeper was telling me that I had already run close to 2 miles. Okay....
At about 3 miles we had to go down another deep hill which led to a creek bed. The only thing was that in order to cross the creek you had to step on a path of teeny tiny rocks. Of course this took some time, so there was a large back-up of people waiting to cross. I would say this took 3-4 minutes, which kind of sucked if you were going for a PR.
Unfortunately my phone battery died before the end of the race. But I crossed the finish line at 2:46! Which is a time I am actually proud of. Especially considering that I ran 14 miles! What you ask? Yes, remember I told you my app was telling me I was running a mile longer than the markers on the trail? It wasn't just a problem with my app, EVERYONE said we ran further than what we were supposed to. Apparently we ran extra because the trail wasn't properly marked, and we were given poor direction. Since this was my FIRST half-marathon I didn't know any better. But after reading reviews, people are pissed about how this event was organized. People were mad about running over 13.1 miles, about it not being completing safe, and about people cheating. I mean there are seriously people calling this the worst half marathon they've ever ran.
Like I said, I don't know any better. I do know that this was a great accomplishment for me. My longest run was 10 miles, so being able to run 14 miles today felt amazing! I feel like I can accomplish anything. I am looking forward to completing many more half-marathons throughout my life.
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