|

|

I Ran a Half Marathon. So Now What?

rock and roll marathon starting line

I ran my half marathon today.

Now the 75% of you who don’t care a lick can breathe a sigh of relief. She’s finally done talking about that blasted half marathon! LOL!!

Well . . . almost.

I will give a quick recap for the 5 of you who care.

There’s really nothing too dramatic to tell. I spent 16 weeks following a moderate half marathon training plan to a T, and I tried to eat smart and drink lots of water the few days before. We got up bright and early this morning to drive into Philly. The kids were not amused to find themselves up before the sun, but they were troopers.

My family dropped me off and then went about their merry way, trying to amuse themselves while I checked my bag, made a final potty stop, and found my corral (they assign you corrals, based on your estimated finish time — the faster runners are the closest to the front.)

I snapped this shot right before the gun went off.

start line

Because I can’t do math, I ended up in a corral very near the starting line. This was a mixed blessing. It was nice because I got to start pretty soon after the official race starting time of 8:00 AM, but because most of the runners in my corral were much faster than me, I got carried along by the tide and tired myself out a little too soon.

For the first few miles, the other runners were, quite literally, passing me right and left. I tried to run my own race and keep to a comfortable pace.

rock and roll half marathon - the beginning stretch

At about mile 2, I heard some hollering, and when I turned around, I saw my family. On a whim, I turned around in the middle of the race course, ran over to them and gave them a few hugs and kisses before soldiering on. My husband only got a hind shot as I ran off — I’m in the crazy hot pink knee socks.

race

Along about mile 3, my knee started hurting. I thought, “Oh no, this is it!” But it worked itself out, and I was fine for a while.

The adrenaline was pumping, there was lots to see, and I was feeling pretty good. Each mile was clearly marked, and I felt like they were passing pretty quickly.

Then around about mile 6, my IT band started aching — that is the tissue that runs along the outside of the knee. It gave me fits for a while, and once again, I thought, “Oh no, is this going to get worse and stop me from finishing? I still have half this race yet to go!”

Finally around mile 8, I stopped and did some stretching. When I hopped back into the race, I noticed that I wasn’t hurting as bad, and I could also tell that my gait had changed. I felt like I was running more flat-footed and using different muscles and tissues than when I run on the forefoot, and my previous complaints were much improved. I knew I was getting tired, and it was more of a lazy gait, but I decided to go with it.

I took some Gu at miles 5 and 9, and I made sure to grab some water several times along the way. The miles seemed to pass pretty quickly right up till the end. I knew I was making pretty good time, and I was feeling good.

My primary goal for this race was to finish, but my ambitious goal was to finish in under 2 hours, 15 minutes. When I dared look at my watch around the 11-mile mark, I could see that I had a good chance of finishing under 2:15.

I started hoofing it.

Now I was the one passing people right and left!!

The last two miles seemed like forever. The last mile was the biggest challenge. I think I picked up speed a little bit too soon so I had to slow back down and coast to the finish. I refused to walk so I kept trudging on, and my final time was 2:13:12 — 2 minutes under my dream goal time.

I was ecstatic.

I collected my medal and grabbed a bottle of water, and then it was time to find my family, and it took forever to get through the throngs of people. There were 20,000 people just running; I have no clue how many were there including the spectators.

Philly Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon

Finally I found my loves.

family

Turns out, they had been waiting at the finish line but they must have gotten there a few minutes after I came through. I had been looking for them, but I wasn’t terribly disappointed when I didn’t see them because I knew that with the crowds, it would have been hard for them to get a spot. But when I found out that they had actually been there, with signs and everything, and just missed me, I was bummed.

But nothing could put a damper on my day. The weather was perfect. I had trained well, I had a good taper, and I came in well within my goal time.

Half Marathon Finish Time and Splits

So, now what??

First, I need to recover. My foot was really sore and stiff today, and I know I need to rest and allow to to recover. I don’t know if it will totally heal as long as I continue to run, but I believe I can work with it and manage to find some sort of happy medium.

I think I can say without a doubt that I will NEVER aspire to run a full marathon.

I am pretty sure I have more half marathons in my future.

Before I tackle that, I’d love to increase my 5K time and build some speed.

But first, I need to give my feet and legs some time to recover.

I don’t want to lose what I’ve gained from this training, but I can’t keep going without allowing my body some time to heal. What that means, exactly, I’m not sure. I will be consulting some trusted friends and professionals to try to come up with some sort of running plan that will maintain my fitness level while giving my body some time to recover from the abuse I’ve put it through these past few months.

In the meanwhile, I am flying high! I am thrilled with my accomplishment, and I haven’t lost the joy of running. All in all, I consider that a win!

Join The Conversation

44 Responses

  1. Nice work Jo-Lynne! What an awesome accomplishment! I love the pic of you and the kids…they look so very proud. What a fabulous, strong mom they have!

  2. SO proud of you! So, so proud! You are one bad-a** mother runner. 🙂

    Next year, I’m running with you! For real this time…

    1. Yeah, my IT doesn’t usually get to me, but every once in a while it flares. My plantar fasciitis is my bigger complaint. I am hoping I can get it to heal if I rest it now that race training is over. But I don’t want to rest too long – I don’t want to lose the fitness I’ve gained, ya know? I am pretty sure I’ll do another half in the spring maybe.

  3. Congrats Jo Lynne! I think I read that you have similar arch issues that I have, and now I see that we both have IT-band flare-ups! That’s great you made it through. I’m just starting to get back into running post-baby. Slowly!

  4. Congrats! I love race running energy–makes everything much more fun. I have to say I am so jealous of your long pants and presumably somewhat cool weather. I live in Texas and am training for the New York Marathon. We ran 18 today in 90 ish weather. Bleh!!

  5. ((hugs)) Congrats!! I once registered for the New York City Marathon, trained like heck but at the end I wasn’t selected, but its still on my bucket list and hope to give it another shot soon. I love how you still managed to stay pretty stylish while running, once again Congrats and add this to your growing list of accomplishment- two thumbs up for a job well done.

    1. LOL! Stylish? In those hot pink compression sleeves? LOL!! I feel like a dork in them, but they do help support my calves, I think.

      This race felt huge, I can’t imagine how crazy a big city marathon would be!

  6. What an amazing accomplishment! Whatever aspires people to run, I will never know; but I am in awe of those that run so far and so long. Incredible! Congratulations!

  7. Congratulations!! What an awesome accomplishment! Even though I don’t run ( and don’t ever aspire to:) I do enjoy living vicariously through you:)

  8. Congratulations! You must feel great to have beaten your expected time! I did a 10K run once many years ago, although I hate running, and it was the best feeling of accomplishment. Of course I couldn’t walk right for like a week afterwards and was ravenously hungry, but it felt pretty good 😉

  9. Congratulations on accomplishing your goal — you inspire me to want to run even though it doesn’t appeal to me at all! At this point, I’d be really happy to complete a 5K…gonna put my running shoes on right now while I’m feeling inspired:-)

  10. Awesome job Jo-Lynn! You did it! I totally understand not wanting to loose the strength you have have. Maybe try a trail run next -those add a different dimension than a road run. Find another half marathon in 6 weeks and go for it.

    A way to keep what you have is to do a long run 8miles or more every other weekend and keep up the mid-week runs that way when it comes time to do another half marathon you won’t have to train for as long.

  11. So happy for you!! And your time is AWESOME! I will be thrilled when I can get consistently below 11min/miles. I hope you are wearing that medal today 🙂

  12. Congratulations! You had perfect weather. Enjoy a little rest, your foot deserves it!

    I’m running a half in Bethlehem in October, but I think next fall I’d like to run in Philly.

  13. I love reading your running posts! You are a huge inspiration to me-I have three little kids and I’ve just started running, and my goal is to do a 5k sometime next year. To see that you have accomplished a half marathon is amazing!

  14. congrats to you !!! I am the same as you and just started running seriously this summer – just ran my first 5k at 36 mins – not the fastest time but will work on speed later – you are an inspiration to me !!!

    PS and BTW love your fashion posts too – that is how i found your website !!

  15. Congratulations! (a bit late)

    I just started running last summer, did several 5k’s and just registered for my first 1/2 marathon (it will be in August 2014) so I’ve been looking for training plans and stumbled onto yours. Which, I am going to use. I’ve looked at several and yours looks “doable” to me.

    So congrats! And thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search
Close this search box.