It was a nice tree lined course, one that I had run last year for my first half. It was just as hilly then as it is now. LOL.
On Sunday was Nathan's first Half Marathon and my 7th! It took place at Prince William Forest Park and was super hilly. The first and last 3 miles were all hills, and miles 8-10 got pretty hilly as well. It was a nice tree lined course, one that I had run last year for my first half. It was just as hilly then as it is now. LOL. It was a pretty small race, so there wasn't any crowd support except for the water stations. But it was a nice, and pretty, run through the trees. I love running through nature, much more than road races such as my half #6 two weeks ago. After the half I felt pretty good. For a majority of the race Nathan and I followed the intervals: Run 30/walk 2:20/Run 30/Walk 3. But of course the last 3 miles were all hills, so we pretty much walked at the end. We were both pretty sore after the race from the hills. He is still having a hard time walking, but that is understandable!
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Apparently running 3 half marathons in 76 days qualifies you as a Half Fanatic!
Here were the races that qualified me: Rock 'n' Roll USA Half Marathon Potomac River Run Half Marathon Alexandria Running Festival Half Marathon I have currently run 6 half marathons, with 6 more planned for this year! On Sunday I completed my 6th Half Marathon at the Alexandria Running Festival! It was ridiculously hard for me because it was so hot. My body did not agree with the weather one bit, I was starting to get a sore throat, and it was the longest 13.1 miles ever...
The race started 30 minutes late, and by then the sun was bright and shining. A big majority of this race was on the road in the middle of Alexandria, so there was not much shade. By the time I got to the park section, I was overly exhausted and tired, and had no energy or desire to continue running. But I trudged along because there was no other option. I had a horrible time (for me) to finish, but I was still within the time constraints of a runDisney race, so I guess it is not too bad. On Sunday I completed my 5th Half Marathon!!! The Potomac River Run Half and Full Marathon took place along the C&O Canal and the Potomac River near Carderock, MD. It was a gorgeous tree-lined race, that had water on both sides for much of the race. The path was packed dirt/gravel, which made it a little different than running on road, but as I have some trail running experience, it didn't really bother me. I thought the scenery was beautiful, and that kept my energy up for a lot of the way
The course was an out and back. I used 2:1 intervals, with an average pace of 12:07. I don't have a gps watch, so I mostly just run my pace by feel, and an occasional message from my RunKeeper. Looking at my pace, I find it interesting that miles 1 and 13 had the same pace, and miles 2 and 4 had the same pace. Those were the same stretch of course! I was starting out easy as to not get tired too quickly, but by mile 11 I was getting pretty tired from the heat (my legs felt great though). By the way: I don't know how the 8am start marathoners finished this race in the heat!!! Apparently I felt awesome at miles 6-8 and 10-11. I felt pretty good for the majority of the race. It just started to get hot, and parts of the course were not shaded, so I got a bit dehydrated, despite drinking at all the water stops, and drinking the nuun that I brought on my belt. My calves got a bit tired towards the end, but I was relatively pain free for this entire run, which was a big change from my last 1/2 in March. I would do this race again. They have it twice a year. The next one is in November where it will be cooler. Does anyone want to join me? This past weekend was the DC Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon. Heidi came up from Florida to run the race with me! On Friday after work, I drove to DC to visit the expo at the DC Armory. The expo was pretty exciting, and had a lot of interesting booths, though it's hard not to compare everything to the runDisney expos... I walked around, got some free samples, and took some pictures with the props. I was done in about an hour, and then I drove home to get ready for the race the next day! My alarm went off at 4:30am, and I quickly got dressed and went to pick Heidi up. After hitting a bit of construction traffic, we made it to the RFK stadium, and took the metro downtown where the start line was. It was a bit chilly because of the wind and darkness, but quickly warmed up as the sun rose. I had the chance to meet a Team #runDisney Facebook friend, who was in my corral. He was also at the WDW Marathon Weekend, and will be at Dumbo Weekend as well! Heidi and I were in corral 23 and waited patiently to begin. One corral was released about every minute, and we began running around 8am. By mile 2.5 I took of my long sleeved shirt and was just in my Party Animal tank top! Heidi stayed bundled up for the entire race. Crazy Floridian... The race course was nice. We started toward and across the Arlington Memorial Bridge, and then on to the Rock Creek Parkway. This part was a pretty run because we had water on one side of us and trees on the other. It was going well until the big hill right before the zoo. UGH!!!! It was huge! After that we were running through the streets and neighborhoods of DC. There were tons of people out cheering us on and the energy level was high.... At least THEIR energy level was high! I did great on the downhills, but all the uphills were rough for me. By mile 9 my right leg was cramping up and made it hard to run the intervals that we started with (3:10-1:00), but I hobbled along. It also didn't help that my RunKeeper was off by about 1/2 mile towards the end of the race, probably because of all my weaving. My phone told me that I was at mile 12, and I thought... Yay, only one mile to go! But really, it was a lot more than that.. But I finished the half marathon and got my medal! The medal is so awesome, and even though the race ended a bit rough, I had a good time. Half Marathon 4 is now complete! These miles are dedicated to Lydia and #RunForJaime. Jaime was a runner who lived a few towns over from me. She was hit by a car and killed last week.
Let me tell you this....Running through the Magic Kingdom is truly magical! Saturday morning brought the half marathon. I was dressed like my favorite character - Figment! The race started at the Epcot parking lot, then went down a looooooooong stretch of road before getting to the Transportation Center, then past the Contemporary Resort, into the Magic Kingdom, and then back down the loooooooooong stretch of road to Epcot. We entered into Magic Kingdom and ran down Main Street with lots of people cheering us on. The energy level was amazing! We then went through Tomorrowland were I saw Buzz. I ran THROUGH the castle, and of course I stopped for a picture! Then I ran past the train and said hi to the rail workers, who gave me a thumbs up! Running through MK was an awesome feeling, and I would recommend it to everyone! After exiting, though, and getting back on that loooooong stretch of road, I was lucky enough to join 2 other people for a while who kept me amused and motivated. Despite the long stretch of highway in the race, I had a blast. The energy level was high, there were spectators everywhere, and MK was pure magic. I'm glad that I had enough time to stop for pictures at the Mile Makers and a lot of the characters. Day 3 of Dopey is complete!
On Sunday I was up at 5 a.m., getting ready to go run the Heritage Half Marathon.
It. Was. Raining. It had been raining for days before, and this morning was no different. Nontheless, I got dressed and drove to the high school where the race was starting. I picked up my bib and shirt (deciding to wear the long sleeve shirt under my runDisney shirt, and waited under the awning for the race to start. At 7:00, we started to rain. It was raining and I needed a heat. But I continued on. It rained the entire race, but I was lucky that my Gortex shoes (though they are not the most comfortable) kept water out until mile 10. I was doing pretty well with my pace, hanging around 10:45/mile, but with water in my shoes, it was a different story. It's like running on a water bed, except your feet are engulfed in water. It was the weirdest feeling, and not very comfortable. I had to slow down and walk a lot more for those last three miles, but it was ok. There was a person whose pace was about the same as mine and we kept each other motivated. I finally got to the track and went to finish the race! Huzzah! I finished in 2 hours and 22 minutes...way faster than my half back in the spring, which was over 3 hours! I am pretty proud of the way my training has been going. And imagine what my time could have been if it weren't raining...! I am going to submit this time to Disney, and will get to move up a corral for Dopey because my pace is faster than what I submitted from Moose on the Loose. The race was good, and I wasn't even that sore. Just a little tight. I was definitely more sore from last week's Tower of Terror 10. And I got 13th place in my age group!!!! I'm not telling how many were in that group, but I was not at the end! My only complaint is that I signed up for a women's small shirt and they gave me a women's extra-large. Don't have small as an option, if you won't have it to give out... On April 14, I ran my first half marathon. Well, I ran part of the race and walked/hobbled the rest. I had signed up for this race last year because it offered a free training program. It started in January and met every Saturday morning at Prince William Forrest Park. It was going great, and I was up to about 8 miles when my IT band started giving me issues and my knee started to hurt. I rested and stretched for about a month and then decided to go for it anyway, even though I still have issues. Anyways, the race was very small. I think there were less than 75 people total signed up for the half marathon,full marathon, and 5k. Because of this it was a very low energy race. There were no spectators cheering you on. Even the people at the water stops weren't even energetic and encouraging. The first couple of a miles of the race were very hilly. Up and down. It was tough. After that, though, it was pretty flat, until you got back to the hilly part to complete the race. For part of the race I was chatting with a couple of people in the marathon track, but most of the time I was all by myself, especially after my knee started to hurt and I had to walk. The last few miles were pretty much torture because of all the hills! Regardless, I finished the race in 3:08:39, even though I had to hop on one foot over the finish line. LOL. But I finished!!! I have the medal to prove it, and I am excited to do another one in the future (preferably one with more people and entertainment)! And hopefully I can get my stupid IT band under control! |