Xpost, Race report

Hi All,

Haven't been here for a while, but I just had to share.

Just got back last night from a fun weekend with my girlfriend away from the teenagers!  Those of you who are unfortuate to have a 15 or 16 year old at hand can understand the joy we felt when the plane took off on Friday and we made our escape.  This wasn't your typical moms' weekend away, filled with spas, facials, massages, pedicures, manicures, chocolate, wine, ...  No, we were doing a Half Marathon on Sunday morning.  Sometimes, I think we're crazy.

My coworker had signed us up for the Run Surf City Half Marathon in Huntington Beach, which was yesterday, so we decided to make a weekend of it.  Flew in Friday afternoon and my parents picked us up and we went to lunch.  Had a nice day with them, then Saturday morning, they dropped us off at our hotel.  After checking in, we headed over to the Expo.  The shirtswere nice long sleeve performance shirts.  It was huge.  We like to look at everything then decide what to buy.  Spent 4 hours there shopping!  Ok, so we're crazy, but I got a really nice new running jacket which is hard to find elsewhere, some cute shirts (one says "my running partner has 4 paws" with paw marks on the front and back and the other says "Half Marathon Mom"), and some compression things for my calfs since my calfs tend to swell up when I exercise from the lymph nodes.  Then it was back to the hotel, then walking over to the nearby shopping center South Coast Plaza.  This mall has a very exclusive section with all the really expensive stores.  Walked into one jewelery store (DK) where they had glasses of champagne.  We did not indulge.  But then they gave us chocolate truffles.  Ok, I was doing 13.1 miles the next day, I had a truffle.  Then my friend didn't want hers, so I had that too.  Guess I did get my chocolate.  We did a little more shopping, then went back to the hotel, by this time totally shopped out and our legs were exhausted.  Not the smartest thing to do before a race. 

Her brother-in-law who lives near there and my son who goes to UCI came to the hotel and well all had dinner together.  So nice to see my son.

So Sunday morning dawns bright and early.  The hotel provided a bus to take us all there.  13256 people in the Half Marathon, over 20000 participants in all (there was a full marathon, a 5K, and a kid's 1 mile).  It was fogged in for most of the race, cold in the morning, but warmed up later, but not too warm so it was perfect weather.  We had our bananas when we got there.  They started us in waves, so we were probably standing around almost 2 hours before we actually started.  I've been not exactly training, but keeping up my endurance and working out regularly.  I have been wanting to start running and even started jogging a little, but definitely did not train with it.  My last half was last October.  My friend runs, so she took off and I started walking.  Side note, we started in a wave group that was between her's and mine.  Then I started jogging a bit.  My Garmin said I was averaging a 15 min mile, which is what I wanted.  I wanted to do it in around 3 hours and 30 minutes.  My first half I did it in 4:11 and my second in 3:58.   Then the 3 hour pacer passed and I decided to see if I could keep up with her.  She was jogging, but would stop and walk a bit too.  I kept up with her for 4 miles, then had to go to the bathroom.  And of course there was a line and about a 5-10 minute wait.  So I never saw her again.  But I kept going.  Couldn't jog much anymore, but I kept a fast walking pace.  Sometimes I would talk to other walkers I passed when we were going at the same pace for a while.  I even passed some people doing slow jogs.  I never passed anyone before in either of the previous races.

I did use Gu, one at 2 miles, one at 5 miles, and one at 9 miles.  I also had put NUUN in my water bottle and they were handing out Vitalight and water.

I spent the last mile and a half with a real nice older man who had recovered from an injury and was getting back into racing.  This was his second.  He was jogging but I was walking just as fast.  Then we passed the 13 mile marker and had only .1 left, so he took off and I started jogging too.  My foot wanted to cramp up, my thigh were hurting, but I ignored it and crossed that finish line!  In 3:19:54!!!!!  OMG!  I can't believe how well I did.  I feel so strong and powerful right now.  Best feeling ever!  That's 39 minutes better than my last half!!!!!!!  And my Garmin said overall I averaged 14.5 minute miles!

For those of you who don't think you can exercise, if I can do it, you can!  I turned 50 last summer right after I did my first half, and had never participated in any sports, not even as a kid.  I'm now a long distance athlete!  As Nike says:  "Just Do It!"  Or to quote KittenLove:  If you want to run, than run.

Peace,
Jan

Thanks for posting this! I hope to be able to accomplish such a great thing that you have done here!

Congrats!

Sounds like you had a great weekend.

thanks for the great race report!  and congrats on SMASHING your former PR!

Congratulations Jan!   What a great way to spend a moms' weekend.

Cassie