Half-Marathon? Check.

I did it! I completed the half-marathon. Official results:

Overall Place:	434 out of 995
Division (35-39) Place:	35 out of 55
Gender Place:	262 out of 440
Time:	1:59:54
Pace:	9:10

I came in (just barely) under my goal of 2 hours which made me happy. I was a little bummed because my calves tightened up somewhere between 10 and 11 miles which made the last stretch pretty painful and slowed me down a good bit. I probably lost about 3 or 4 minutes because of it, but I was still happy that I made my goal. Plus, it was my first race ever, so there was a lot to learn by actually competing in a race as opposed to just doing a training run on my own.

In addition to meeting my goal, I did better than the average time which makes me feel good since I've only been seriously training for a few months. And I finished in the top 43rd percentile. Obviously, there is a competitive side to official races. But as long as I keep it in perspective and just try to improve on myself, I won't be disappointed. It's so easy to get caught up in the competitive nature of the event. One of the signs I saw along the race said "If it were easy, everybody would do it". A simple statement, but it really does put everything into perspective. I'm challenging myself to something I never before thought was possible and to something that not a lot of people even attempt. And it's a good feeling to know that I did actually run the face and finish.

As far as my mind games go, I only thought about looking for trash once or twice during the race. I didn't feel the need to play any mind games on Saturday. Just focusing on the task at hand was enough. There is just something about the adrenaline I had from actually running in the race, and that was enough to occupy my mind. Plus the unfamiliar territory actually helped because I didn't know what to expect after the next turn.

Overall, it was a very nice course. There were a few hills, but I don't feel that they slowed me down. The weather was a bit cold to start, but I was thawed out by the end of mile 2. My feet probably felt it the most while walking through the frost in my Vibrams. My toes were pretty cold at the start of the race, but I figured they would warm up once my blood started pumping. After those first couple of miles, I was warmed up and felt good. I am extremely thankful that it wasn't windy on Saturday.

I definitely enjoyed it and will keep going with my training for the full marathon. I'm taking a break today but tomorrow it's back to training...only 151 days until the marathon!