Race Report-Marine Corps Half Marathon

This was my first half marathon from this morning. I woke up at 2:30 am since we had a 2 hour drive to Jacksonville Florida ahead of us.I drank a click shake and got ready. Me and my best friend Loraine loaded up my 2 little girls and my 2 little weenie dogs in the truck. We were on the road by 3:30 am, I drove, I ate a snickers marathon bar on the way and drank a bottle of G2.

Made it to the race site around 6 am, I picked up my race packet, and went back to the truck where my girls were still passed out in their car seats. I attached my race number to my race belt and put the timing chip on my shoe, it was a souvenir chip so I got to keep it. I chatted with Loraine and did some last minute stretching. Soon it was time to line up at the start line. I told Loraine I'll be done in about 2 hours 20 minutes, and she said she would head over there with the girls and dogs in about an hour and 45 minutes.I walked over to the starting line, and picked a spot in the middle and waited. Finally the gun went off and the crowd started moving, when I crossed the timing mat I started my garmin.

I wanted to take it easy for the first mile with the big crowd, so I aimed for a 10 minute pace, my first mile split was 10:09, right on target. After a mile the crowd spread out a little and I was able to pick up the pace.2nd mile was 9:30, 3rd mile was 9:48, 4th mile was 9:23, 5th mile was 9:41, 6th mile was 9:41, it was at this point I took a salt tab, I also had to pee really bad, but every time I saw a porta potty there was a long line of runners, so I decided to just suck it up and keep going since I had a target time in mind. My 7th mile split was 9:49, at mile 8 I ate half a pack of sport beans, my 8th mile split was 9:51, ate the other half of the sport bean, my 9th mile split was 9:44, and at this point it hit me I was almost done, and I felt good, so I bumped it up a little, 10th mile 9:27, at the 11th mile marker there was a very steep uphill, suddenly I got hit with a surge of energy and sprinted up this hill, getting a lot of strange looks from people I was passing, but I didn't care, I was only 2 miles away from finishing my first half marathon. 11th mile was 9:30, 12th mile was 9:16, this was it, only 1 mile to go, I used my excitement to bump it up,13th mile was 8:16. I headed into the finishers chute and crossed the finish line. A marine put the finisher's medal around my neck and another marine gave me a souvenir pint glass.

I caught up with Loraine and my girls, Loraine gave me a hug and told me good job. I reached into her backpack and pull out the 2 kids medals I had bought at party city for the girls earlier that week. I told them thank you for being good girls for Loraine and put the medals around their necks. I saw a big line at the beer kegs for the runners, they were filling up their souvenir pint glasses. I must admit a beer did sound yummy right about now, but I have to wait until I am a year post op, which is next month.

This was a really fun race, I loved the distance, and look forward to doing more half marathons and eventually full marathons. I am proud of myself for running the whole thing, and not wetting myself when I had to go pee so bad. Here are my results:


Bib#     overall   class                                                                                                  chip             gun        

 417   251   49  Jillian O'Malley, 27, Hinesville, GA      2:05:13    2:06:16 

That a girl!!!! Great race...

Awesome! I hope it was fun! Thanks for your good example!

awesome job,

Congrats.

Congratulations Jillian!  Those are amazing splits for your first half marathon.  Good thing Loraine knew what you're made of and planned to get to the finish early.

Cassie