Diva's Half-Marathon Recap

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.

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?

I don't really remember where that was, but I am pretty sure that was a fake smile.

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.