Rock N' Roll Dallas Half Marathon

Half Marathon Finished in: 2h53min
5k Finished In: 35:32
10k Finished In: 1:15:48
Pace: 13:15

In the words of my daughter's favorite TV show character, Dora the Explorer, "We did it! We did it! We did it! Hooray!" Yesterday, my dad, KL, and I all ran 13.1 miles. What an exhilarating experience! My Dad got in Saturday, and then we went and picked up our race packets at the Expo. I discovered Sweaty Bands were at the Expo, and my Dad bought two for me for my birthday. He also got me the CUTEST little SPIbelt that I have ever seen. Pink plaid?!? Yes please!

After that, we had some BBQ for supper and then my Dad spent some time hanging with the kiddos. He hadn't seen them in a long time (since D was 20 months old and since P was 6 months old!), so he was excited to get in there are play with them. My kids are usually a little stand-offish, but they both jumped right in there and loved on their Papa. It was awesome! After they went to bed, we stayed up a little and got our gear in order and made plans for the morning. My first half marathon (and only other previous half marathon) I did, I was super late to the start line and started about 15 minutes after everybody else and didn't have my number all the way on, and it was just a nightmare. It was nice to be prepared and even early this go-around.

KL showed up bright and early at 6am, and we were off to Fair Park for the bus to the start line. The bus line moved really quickly, and it was already pretty warm out (although I was cold, everyone else said it was warm). The buses were super nice - they even had seatbelts on them. Fancy! When we got to the start, we waited in the lines for the ever-lovely port-a-potties. I hate public bathrooms. Port-a-potties are like my arch nemeses. For realz. I despise those things. I always walk out feeling like I need a shower. Ick! After that, we went to our corral (Number 11!) so that we could line up - the other corrals had already started while we were in the icky-port-a-potty line.

The race started, and I plugged in my Ipod and took off. Generally, I'm a s-l-o-w runner. But when you put me in a race, I want to prove myself and run fast. This does not work to my advantage in long runs, because I get tired. It took me until about mile 4 or 5 to really find my pace and settle into it. As you can see from my times at the top, my 5k was done in 35 minutes. That is pretty fast for me! I was proud of that number. I had to walk a little after mile 2 (only probably a quarter mile or so) and then I started running again. I was totally unprepared for the number of hills that were on this course. I'm sure I could have actually *looked* at the elevation information provided by RNRDallas, but that would have too smart of me. I just assumed since most of Texas is flat, that the course would be flat a well. That was not the case. Holy F! There were a lot of hills! Nothing as bad as the dreaded Doomsday Hill from the Spokane Bloomsday Run (that is one killer hill!), but still some pretty long, low-grade hills that felt like my calves were on fire as I was running up them.

We ran through a gorgeous park with a reservoir/lake thing that had lilly pads throughout and flowers and it was just beautiful, and then we also ran through some neighborhoods that I would just LOVE to live in. Giant mansion like houses with impeccably manicured lawns and flower gardens. Seriously, I could get used to that. Around mile 8, I had to walk another quarter mile or so. By that point, I had just downed my third energy gel thing, and I was fading fast. I told myself that I could do it, and put my feet in motion again. At mile 10, I was starving. My peanut butter toast and banana I had for breakfast was long gone, and I was just exhausted and soo hungry. I took one more energy pack and ended up walking from mile 10 to mile 11. When I hit 11, though, I told myself that I had to do this. I had to RUN. I made it 12. Exhausted, hot, tired, and REALLY having to pee (but not wanting to stop to wait in a line for a port-a-potty). I thought about running into a Starbucks I saw and using their bathroom, but thought if I stopped, I might not be able to start again. So I kept on trucking. I told myself that I was bringing it in. Only 1.1 miles to go, and I could do this! I saw the Dallas Star ferris wheel that is in Fair Park (the end of the half), and I put my energy into it. When I got to 13 miles, I sprinted. I passed people left and right. I pumped my arms, propelled myself forward and finished in under 3 hours. Wahoo!

I went to the designated meeting place and waited for my Dad and KL. I felt really shaky and just not good. I grabbed a water, a banana, a high-protein cookie, and a Gatorade. I sat down and tried to do some gentle stretching, but man, my muscles were screaming!! KL and my Dad shortly joined me. This was KL's

I was silly and didn't ice anything yesterday, so I am sore today. My calves don't really feel that bad, and I am giving full credit to my Zensah compression sleeves for that. Way to go compression sleeves - you DID it! Seriously, compression sleeves are my new BFF. I now want compression leggings because my hips and thighs are hurting so bad. So bad, in fact, that last night I had trouble sleeping. I also got a pretty decent sunburned face, and some hilariously awesome compression sleeve tan lines on my legs. I have taken some tylenol and am hoping that my soreness lessons by tomorrow. I'm planning on doing a 2 - 3 mile walk tomorrow to ease myself back into exercise. It would be nice to not feel like kaka while I'm doing that. I totally pushed myself on this race. Normally, I only run about 1 mile, then walk a 1/2 mile, then repeat until I'm done running. I only walked 1.5 miles of this whole race. I'm pretty sure that is why I am so sore. Either way, I am proud of myself and looking forward to improving my time on my next half marathon in May!