no one said it would be easy

ive been dreading writing the race report from the martian half marathon on sunday. that should give you an idea of how it went.

did i make ANY of my goals?
NOPE! if you recall, my last goal was to have a fun race with my friends. nope, that didn't even happen.

the race started at 7 and was an hour away. andrew and i had plans to meet up with dustin at 6, which means we had to leave at 5, which meant we got up at 4. the night before, we were up til midnight. which leaves me 4 hours of sleep. not great.

anyways, we all got some coffee pre-race and i could already tell it wasn't my day. i have been fighting this cold for weeks, i haven't gotten a lot of sleep the last few days, and i just wasn't feeling it. you know that excitement you get before a race? the adrenaline that gets you going? yeah, it never happened.

before the race i gave the boys full permission to leave me if they wanted to run faster. we all started together. i think they thought they were running slow enough for me, but that was not the case. their slow running was my sprinting. so, not even 2 miles in they left me and i was already tired.

the rest of the run was uneventful. it was a small race, in sort of a boring area. during most of the race, i completely freaked out mentally. when i got to the turnaround, i thought, halfway done, actually only 1/4 done for the full. i really got nervous about the full marathon, spent a lot of time worrying about my training, etc etc.

i think i was completely delusional when i created my goals. breaking 2 hours? no where close. i ended up finishing at 2:13:36, 37 of 66 in my age group.

so it wasn't my race. the worst part was that andrew was planning on running the half in cleveland, and right after i finished he told me that he felt so great during the race he is going to push through training to run the full with me in cleveland. i tried to be happy for him, but i was mostly a very crabby runner that morning.

we came home and made an enormous mess of a breakfast - fried eggs, fried potatoes with cheese, and toast. and beer. and then a 2 hour nap. so, that part of the race day was fun!

while it wasn't a great race, it was valuable. i learned i need to really focus on my training, especially my mental game. i also realized that i am not a fast runner, and right now i am working on distance and not speed. my goals should be based on me and no one else - even if my friends are way faster than me.

race aside, it was a great weekend having andrew here. we hadn't seen each other in over 2 years, and it was so surreal to see him. but, like any good friends, it was like we had just seen each other last week. my brother and his family came over sunday and andrew and i had tons of fun playing with my niece.

so starting today - its on with my marathon training. im sticking to my schedule, im going to keep a better eye on what i eat (and drink) and i am going to take care of myself and sleep enough. because that is what is going to make me confident on may 17!

i hope everyone is having fun at work - im lovin my spring break! my spring break is probably a lot like my students - lots of time on the couch watching tv!