So I decided it is time to post this because all of the other bloggers have their race recaps up from last weekend, so I should finish mine from the 28th of April.
I ran the Diva's Half-Marathon in North Myrtle Beach. I went up to Myrtle Beach on Saturday afternoon (the race was on Sunday). Saturday I went to go get my packet at the expo. The expo was mediocre. It was well organized, but it was small. I guess I am just spoiled by the Bridge Run expo in my hometown so other expos seem like a disappointment. I got my packet, walked around for a few minutes, but then I left to go visit a couple of stores at the outlets and then go get some pasta.
So they had a bit of a shirt problem. The shirts were supposed to be women's sizes, but they ended up being more like kids sizes. I got a small because I was worried about how small the women's sizes would be, and it barely covers my belly button and it is quite tight. Luckily, they had a system to get the shirts replaced and I should be getting mine in a few weeks.
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| My bib. |
I woke up race morning late so we rushed to the start line (not a good way to start a race morning). I did not have time to stretch so I felt that at mile 4. The entire race was tight which I think was primarily because of me forgetting the night before, and then not having enough time race morning. I learned that stretching during a race takes up a lot of valuable minutes. No good. I also woke up not feeling much better from the nasty cold I had been suffering all week. I tried to keep a positive attitude on race morning, but between being late and sick, I wasn't expecting much out of the race.
Miles 1-6 were okay. It was just running. Nothing too exciting. The course wasn't too exciting and I knew I had a long race ahead of me.
Miles 7-9 were where things got tough. I really felt the effects of not properly stretching and I also had some nutrition issues.
Mile 10 was rough. I was definitely starting to get sore. That was not good. I also became extremely unmotivated and was just searching for my parents just to get some sort of motivation. I definitely started to feel the effects of being sick- I could barely breath through my nose and my energy was zapped. I think I need to work on my nutrition strategy some too. Any suggestions?
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I don't really remember where that was, but I am pretty sure that was a fake smile.
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Miles 11-13 felt sooooo long. There was nothing I could seem to do to make them go by faster.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I finished in 2:18:56. I was disappointed in my time after spending so much time and effort to prepare for it only to be sick on race day, but at the end of the day I am still proud that I finished my second half-marathon. I have a lot of races ahead of me. I am super excited about Kiawah.
Overall, I would recommend this race to someone who lives close and just wants to do a run on a flat and fast course, but there wasn't really anything too exciting. One thing that I loved about this race was the enthusiastic spectators. There were a lot of people with really funny signs that made me laugh even through my mile 10 crash. One thing that I didn't like so much is that the 5K runners and walkers shared the course for part of it, and at the time I was hitting the part of the course that we shared, there were a lot of 5K walkers and half-marathon runners in a relatively small area.
I better go to sleep so I can wake up to run a 5K tomorrow. I don't really have any expectations for it. It is mostly just a race to gauge where my current 5K time is to set a goal for the fall, but I do love races- big and small, long and short. They are what keeps me running- even the ones that I didn't do well in give me motivation to do better in the next race.
