I am Boston, I will run

I forgot how
painfully good
it feels
to run a half marathon!

I was starting to get nervous
on my upcoming races this month

The Reach The Beach relay race
& the Run to Remember half marathon

And then just 13 hours prior to
The Quincy Half Marathon
I was asked to run
(in place of someone)

Well...why not
Here goes nothin!

Miles 1-4 I felt great
Steady pace, great weather
OK, this is gonna be alright.....
And then miles 7/8
I felt like I'd never complete it..
at least not in a time I'd be OK with at all..
and then miles 8-11 I felt dehydrated,
Great...this doesn't help one bit.
OH.. then Chafing happened,
calves were hurting and
I was nowhere close to my PR time.
Awesome, this sucks.......

But with months of little training
in long distance
(basically..
nothing more than 7 miles
since Philly Marathon )
I couldn't really be surprised.
...but it's still frustrating

Then I got to mile 12 and
I see my 3 friends, yay!
My friend Katie
(whose first half marathon will be in September!)
ran 3/4 of a mile with me (in jeans!)
to get me to the last 1/4 of a mile

I saw some other friends
waved and then I rounded the track
I was feeling good
and knew I was within
a minute
of my first ever half marathon time
So here we go...

...I felt like I was sprinting my ass off
GPS says 8:30 pace the last 200 meters
Not bad for my slow butt ;)

Hello adrenaline....
I've missed you!

and crossing that finish line
Felt
fucking
amazing

Well, besides my calf cramping up

But it was still under
my first ever half marathon time,
so I was happy.
(2:23:38)

Thanks to Greg for the pics!

Left the race

and made our way

to a Mexican restaurant 

..waited for it to open at 11am

for Cinco De Mayo celebrations

A very successful impromptu run & Sunday!