Half Marathon of Redemption

After the last half marathon disaster I was not satisfied with my performance.  I trained hard for that half marathon in August and was so disappointed.  I needed to redeem myself.  So I signed up for the Athens 1/2 Marathon to try to redeem myself.  I have been training still...I just kind of kept training after the Alien 1/2 and kept my mileage up.  Athens is hilly, so lots of hill training too.  Dean, Joan, and Tina were all running the race today so it was fun to be with friends.  Kim was our chauffeur and picked me up about 5:30 a.m.  We then met Joan and picked her up about 6:10 a.m. and rode into Athens and parked.  We then went to church.  Yes..church! There was a church service for runners this morning.  So we listened to the service and the best part was we could use the bathroom there.  That is always nice to have at a race.  We did a little warm up and headed to the start.  It was a chilly start and I wore one of Brendon's sweatshirts that he was ok with it not coming home...I tossed it before the race started.  The race started in downtown Athens.  They have such a great downtown! At 7:30 a.m. we were off! We started downtown and then to a historic part of Athens.  There was a LONG down hill part to Memorial Park about mile 5 but what goes down must come up! So there was a bit of a hill back up to mile 6.  Then we went out of the loop down and by the UGA golf course and then back onto campus.  There were some hills on the way back and I walked a few.  My calf muscles were getting a little tired.  The course had plenty of hydration...water and POWERADE! YAY! I was a happy girl.  The final stretch was great.  I ran past Sanford Stadium on the bridge and then a few turns and a few hills later, we ran around the hedges at Sanford Stadium and then on to the finish.  My time was 2 hours and 12 minutes.  While running for that long there are lots of things to think about.  One thing I did not think about was quitting.  I really wanted a strong finish.  I fought through the fatigue and the mental part of it.  I was very pleased with my time on this race.  I really didn't have a goal but to finish better than last time.  But overall it was a great course, even with the hills, great friends and fellowship, great temperatures, and good snacks after.

I was very tired when I got home...I didn't sleep well the night before and running 13.1 miles makes you tired.  I ate lunch and then took a nap and so did Olivia.  Olivia woke up in a great mood and we played outside.  Olivia helped her daddy plant some spinach.  We ate dinner and played like usual.  Today also Olivia is 19 months old! I will write about that tomorrow!!

Helping plant spinach

Here is my shirt, medal and number.