My Own Half Marathon November 2013

This year I was really excited to run my fourth half marathon.  A half marathon is the perfect racing goal for me: it challenges my fitness level, but won't leave me feeling too wiped out.  So anyway back in August, I started figuring out which local race I wanted to set as my goal.  First one I wanted to do was the Diva Half Marathon in Leesburg (only 40 minutes away!) that would be in September.  That one however, was sold out.  Next idea was to repeat the Freedom Half Marathon like I did last year.  That was my plan for a while (oh by the way, if you haven't already figured out, I'm going through all of the boring details of my racing plans this fall.  Feel free to skip this post) until we found out that Austin Staker was getting baptized that morning.  Missing his baptism was not an option in this house, so I looked for a new one.  Next choice: Richmond half marathon.  That dream was short lived however as Erik pretty quickly told me that weekend was going to be his work inventory which means nothing can be scheduled on the Friday or Saturday (also the Richmond half sold out).  Soooo, my last non-Sunday option was the Annapolis Classic in Annapolis, MD! Because I was frustrated by the whole situation I just paid the money and signed up for it.

So, I continued my half marathon training.  And as I did, I started to realize how tricky it was going to be to be at my race two hours ready to race at 7:00am.  Do we pay and stay in a hotel the night before?  Do we get a babysitter and just me and Erik go?  Do we wake the kids up at 4:00am and take them?  Do I just go by myself at 4:00? And then there was the thought of using a precious Saturday for my half marathon.  I feel like we haven't had many Saturdays together as a family in a while and the thought of getting stuff done (planting fruit trees!) seemed so tempting.  So long story long, I decided to nix the Annapolis classic. Luckily I did already get my race hat in the mail :)

In the end I decided to set a time and run my 13.1 miles here.  So on Wednesday morning, Erik agreed to take the boys to school and Anna to work for a bit until I was done.

When I looked at the temperature as I got dressed, I kind of started to dread it.  However, once the sun came out it wasn't too cold at all!

Trying to get a silhouette on a shop window.  Hahaha I was too embarrassed to be fully committed, so it just didn't work.

Pretty Winchester!  I loved my running route.  I loved that the sun was shining.  I loved that I could listen to my running play list without fear of "breaking the racing rules."  Oh and I loved that it had Christmas songs on my list (Mariah Carey's Oh Santa is my current running fave).  I did however, miss the water/Gatorade stations.  And the random people cheering you on from the side.  And the adrenaline rush from being among other excited racers.  Overall though, it was a pretty awesome way to complete my goal.  

Finished and feeling great! :)

My stats.  Considering that my pace includes walking around Lowe's for like 5 minutes trying to find a bathroom, stopping at many stoplights, and stopping to take the random picture, I'm actually really surprised by it.  I have been normally running barely 10 minute miles all fall.  I guess I did have some race day adrenaline after all! :)