ING Half Marathon

I did it! I ran my first half marathon, ING. I was so proud of myself. There was a point, 7.5 miles in, that I thought there was no way I was going to finish, but I kept at it and managed to finish within my goal time of 2:30. I, quite honestly, had thoughts about just sitting on the sidelines waiting for the shuttle to drive me to the finish line and was cursing myself for signing up for four more half marathons this year. At mile 9 is when I started to regain my confidence and feel better. My mentality completely changed at mile 10, with 3.1 miles left: "this is a 5K, you can do it!"

The race was well executed and there was plenty of water and gatorade along the way. The course was beautiful. Never in my wild dreams did I think I would run down McArthur Causeway, Ocean Drive, and through downtown Miami. My biggest complaint is that I didn't know where the official start and finish lines where. I started tracking my run where I thought the start line was and I ran until the finish line and I clocked in almost 13.5 miles. It felt so good to cross that finish line and take my medal. So good, in fact, that all I could think about at that point was "when's the next race?" I hit the wall at 7.5 miles, I climbed over it, and trotted my happy self to the finish line.

Good old Garmin

Interestingly enough, I read that your wall is usually the longest run you have done in the previous 2-3 weeks. My last longest run before the race was 7.5 miles and it was supposed to be 10. Next time I know to make sure to (a) not do an obstacle run the day before your long run or (b) do the long run before an obstacle run. Either way, running the half marathon was such a great experience. There were so many runners and the festival they had after was full of lots of free drinks and food. Oh, and the expo before the race! It was a runner's paradise. We spent the whole day at the expo and Cati was still upset when we had to leave.

@ Expo

Our matching shirts

After stretching for a good 30 minutes I made my way home. Alex and the girls didn't make it out to the race so I was eager to get to my cheering squad. Cati was wearing her orange ING shirt and couldn't keep her hands off the medal. One of the best things about this race was the surprise of my aunt driving down from Orlando. This woman is made of some great stuff.

With my cheerleader

Lady loves

Next up, Disney's Princess February 24. I can't wait!