I did the Surfside Half Marathon this morning. I had really, really low expectations for the race, considering that I've been hurt for six weeks and hadn't done a training run longer than 10 miles. As I was walking up to the registration area, I ran into my stake president, who is my age, lives in my neighborhood, and is the husband of a good friend. Anyway, he said he was shooting for a 1:45 and if I wanted to, we could run together. So we did, for the first five miles, when he told me I was too fast and I broke away. It was a gorgeous race! The entire thing was on the sand, three miles in one direction, six and a half in the other, then three and a half more in the first direction. After I left Jon behind, I just kept passing people. It felt so good not to hurt! The race tends to be kind of slow, because the sand slows you down (30 seconds to a minute per mile, according to those in the know).
Anyway, I finished at 1:45.03. I was the second woman overall, and about the 12 or 15th runner overall, I'm guessing. I got interviewed for the paper and got a really cool glass plate for the second place finisher, lol. They had a big bbq afterwards, and if I hadn't been so worn out and kind of sick feeling, I think I would have enjoyed it. Actually, it's the first time I've felt like I really loved running during a race in I don't know how long. Usually I love the training, but hate the racing. The two main guys organizing the race afterwards pulled me aside and asked me who I trained with. When I told them "my jogger and my treadmill" they said I needed to have a coach and a training group, because they thought I would benefit from it.
Anyway, sorry to be a braggart, but I'm still on a high. My knee felt great the whole time too, so that was really encouraging. But, as always when I finish a half, I couldn't fathom doing 13 more miles when I got to the finish line. Maybe the half marathon is really my distance.
The race is so beautiful on the beach too! If anyone wants to run it next year (they have a full marathon too) you know where you can stay!
6 comments:
You are awesome!!! Brag away-you deserve to. If we are ever living in TX at the same time- we should do a race together.
1:45-that's great-and in sand??? Really? The whole race was in sand? That's an awesome time. I've only done 3-but my best time was 1:45 and it wasn't in sand.
Congrats!
Way to go! That is a great time--I'm so glad you had such a good race!
You are awesome, Shelah.
Hooray! I'm so proud of you Shelah! I checked in to see how it went -- and I'm so happy it went so well! I left a message for Annie -- we had company for dinner tonight so I didn't get to call back, but I'll try to catch up with all of you tomorrow!
Way to go!
Love, Annie
You are so cool! I'm really excited for you.
What a great job on your half marathon. You make it sound very easy.
Recover well and keep up the great running and posting!
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