LOL – so that kind of sucked but at least I can say I did it. I never would have even considered a half marathon if it weren’t for my buddy nudging me into it, but I am glad that he did. It can be very gratifying to accomplish something you were not sure you had in you. 😉

The 13.3 mile course was definitely challenging for me just based on the distance but it was also fairly hilly in places. It started off with 4 miles flat, followed by 5 hills in the next 5 miles and finished downhill and flat for the final 4 miles, the last 2 were straight into the wind. On a nice day it would have been gorgeous since 1/3 of the course was along Long Island Sound, but Mother nature decided to throw just about everything at me that she could – rain, sleet, hail, a fair bit of wind and a whole lot of cold but I finished it anyway. Even my toughest day on the treadmill NEVER included all of that!

I spent the first 6 miles or so power walking along side my friend, and we had a pretty good pace going together but my I’m-cold-and-wet-walking-pace was just slightly faster than his, so at about the halfway point he suggested (not for the first time) that I just go on ahead and not keep waiting for him to catch up. I hesitated because I REALLY liked having the company and someone to talk with to make the miles less miserable, but I also wanted to get this over with faster if I could. So I said “see you later” and started to jog some intervals – speeding up a bit to help me warm up and slowing down to catch my breath when I needed to, (which was a lot.) Then I would power trudge up a hill and jog down the backside of it. But 13.3 miles is a LONG way to go and I was not really sure I could do it in those awful weather conditions.

It actually occurred to me at one point that even if I wanted to quit – I still had to get back to my dang car and I would have felt very pretty lame calling an uber to take me the last couple of miles and then standing there waiting for a ride as my friend (almost 10 years my senior) walked by and waved. Hahaha! So I stuck it out to the end mainly out of sheer obstinance and finished with a time of 3hr and 20 mins. Just about a 4 MPH average and finished #220 out of 225 of the 1/2 marathoners. So not last but not far from it, but I am telling myself not to dwell on that while trying t remember that while I may not be super fast – I freaking did it and that is more than a lot of folks can say – especially women my age who heavily smoked for 35 years. Yes, I looked pretty beat up as I crossed the finish line, and I was definitely sucking wind but if you had asked me a couple years ago if I ever even DREAMED I could do a half marathon – even at a snails pace – I would have laughed at you. 🙂

My friend asked me if I was going to become addicted to 1/2 marathons now and with no hesitation I said “NOPE!!” I don’t regret it now, (I did a couple times that day) but sitting here 4 days later as I feel pretty recovered but a slight lingering sniffle, I can say I am really glad I did it, but have no desire to make that a habit right now. I think I would like to go back to focusing on being able to run shorter distances without stopping. I am no 2 workouts away from completing a 60 workout 5k series on my treadmill. Friday I will jog 30 mins straight at about a 4.4 MPH pace without stopping and from there I’d like to build to a full 5k. Again – maybe not super fast but still feels like an accomplishment for me and for that – I am grateful. 🙂 I hope you have a lot to be grateful for this week too. ~ Mz Suzanne