When Kelly Perdieu told me about the OBX Half-Marathon back in September...she mentioned that she really wanted to go and that she probably would be staying with some friends who have done it every year. Since I didn't want to impose and I didn't really have the money, I didn't really pursue the idea of running it. After I started working for Riverside Runners in mid-October, I once again had the idea pop into my head when a fellow runner, Tommy Harris, mentioned that he was going to the OBX to run the full marathon and he was looking for someone to be his driver (aka: take him to the start, 26 miles away from his house). I thought it would be so much fun, so I asked Gregg if he'd be interested in going (being our driver) and told him we'd have a place to stay. I was running in the mornings with Kelly (semi-training, but not really running that much), so I decided to step it up in preparation for the race. I confirmed with Tommy that we'd be coming along, that we'd stay with him at his house, and that Jeff had approved me to be gone that weekend from work. I started running more, ran a PR in the I Am Woman 5k, at 25:36. In no way did I think the OBX Half was going to be some GREAT race for me, but I knew it would be fun. Tommy, Gregg, and I left on Nov. 7th, a Friday afternoon, stopped for spaghetti in Chesapeake on the way down, and then settled in. Saturday, we went to the Race EXPO, picked up our packets, bought fun Gizmo socks, and drove the courses. Saturday night, we talked about our goals for the race...mine being that I beat my previous half-marathon time of 2:08:53 by 4-5 minutes (goal: 2:04:00). Tommy and Gregg both agreed that they thought I could break 2 hours, but I wasn't too sure, knew that I was feeling ultra-nervous, and was a bit sore in my right Achilles.the morning of the race, after visiting the bathroom and porta-john plenty of times, i took off. tommy had prepared my feet with moleskin, vaseline, and his favorite treatment, Bigeloil, and i felt really good. Gregg missed the start of the half because he was dropping Tommy off for the marathon start, so i took off and hoped to see Gregg somewhere along the course. if it weren't for him popping up every few miles, i probably wouldn't have done as well...gregg would come out of nowhere, cheer for me, take some pictures and then move on ahead and meet me again. i felt so good the first half of the race...running around 57 minutes for the first 6.9 miles. the 2nd half, a 10K, was a similar time, around 59 minutes, which put me at 1:56:57 for my finish. i knew that i slowed down a bit in the 2nd half, but i wasn't sure by how much, and i wasn't pushing super hard until the last 5K and then really the last mile. when i saw the finish line and saw that i was under 2 hours, i started to cry! i was so happy, so proud, so excited that i had beat my own goal and fulfilled what both Tommy & Gregg had said in the beginning. running this race was like a new step for me...breaking records...running a better pace than ever in a long distance race...and just feeling so good about myself. :) i'm sure there's more running records to come!
11.13.2008
OBX half-marathon
When Kelly Perdieu told me about the OBX Half-Marathon back in September...she mentioned that she really wanted to go and that she probably would be staying with some friends who have done it every year. Since I didn't want to impose and I didn't really have the money, I didn't really pursue the idea of running it. After I started working for Riverside Runners in mid-October, I once again had the idea pop into my head when a fellow runner, Tommy Harris, mentioned that he was going to the OBX to run the full marathon and he was looking for someone to be his driver (aka: take him to the start, 26 miles away from his house). I thought it would be so much fun, so I asked Gregg if he'd be interested in going (being our driver) and told him we'd have a place to stay. I was running in the mornings with Kelly (semi-training, but not really running that much), so I decided to step it up in preparation for the race. I confirmed with Tommy that we'd be coming along, that we'd stay with him at his house, and that Jeff had approved me to be gone that weekend from work. I started running more, ran a PR in the I Am Woman 5k, at 25:36. In no way did I think the OBX Half was going to be some GREAT race for me, but I knew it would be fun. Tommy, Gregg, and I left on Nov. 7th, a Friday afternoon, stopped for spaghetti in Chesapeake on the way down, and then settled in. Saturday, we went to the Race EXPO, picked up our packets, bought fun Gizmo socks, and drove the courses. Saturday night, we talked about our goals for the race...mine being that I beat my previous half-marathon time of 2:08:53 by 4-5 minutes (goal: 2:04:00). Tommy and Gregg both agreed that they thought I could break 2 hours, but I wasn't too sure, knew that I was feeling ultra-nervous, and was a bit sore in my right Achilles.the morning of the race, after visiting the bathroom and porta-john plenty of times, i took off. tommy had prepared my feet with moleskin, vaseline, and his favorite treatment, Bigeloil, and i felt really good. Gregg missed the start of the half because he was dropping Tommy off for the marathon start, so i took off and hoped to see Gregg somewhere along the course. if it weren't for him popping up every few miles, i probably wouldn't have done as well...gregg would come out of nowhere, cheer for me, take some pictures and then move on ahead and meet me again. i felt so good the first half of the race...running around 57 minutes for the first 6.9 miles. the 2nd half, a 10K, was a similar time, around 59 minutes, which put me at 1:56:57 for my finish. i knew that i slowed down a bit in the 2nd half, but i wasn't sure by how much, and i wasn't pushing super hard until the last 5K and then really the last mile. when i saw the finish line and saw that i was under 2 hours, i started to cry! i was so happy, so proud, so excited that i had beat my own goal and fulfilled what both Tommy & Gregg had said in the beginning. running this race was like a new step for me...breaking records...running a better pace than ever in a long distance race...and just feeling so good about myself. :) i'm sure there's more running records to come!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment