It has been busy here in my lil life, that is why I have not even had time to come on and blog. As I sit here now typing this I am thinking about the 10 other things I should be doing right now instead, but I do need to get this race recap out too :)
The Providence Rock and Roll Half Marathon was last Sunday. I signed up for this race months ago when competitor had a really good deal. I had forgotten all about it, and then once I got injured I did not even know if I would be running in it. But, as I always say, never say never...
As we got closer to the race I began to get excited. You see when this race went on sale a bunch of awesome twitter pals signed up!!! I love having local running buddies, many who have now become good friends. I was super excited that Dani, Robin, Samantha, and Janine were going to be running as well!
I was kind of worried going into this race weekend. I started ultra marathon training in full force a few weeks ago. My plan called for 30 miles so I split it up based around the half on Sunday. I ran 17 miles on Saturday early afternoon and that had gone so well I was nervous for Sunday. This was really the first weekend I was going to be doing back to back longish runs so I was unsure of how my legs would feel. I thought I would just go and have fun.
Well then along came Miss Dani, hehe she asked me to run with her and help pace her to a PR. I knew on non tired legs I would be able to but I was really concerned with what I would have left come Sunday morning. So I agreed to try and keep up with her as long as I could. On Sunday morning I woke up early and headed into Providence.
I waited in a super long line in the morning and then headed over to corral 3 to meet up with the ladies!
Samantha, and Dani with me before the start!I quickly found Dani in her bright orange race menu shirt :) and we talked about sticking together. I told her, I would try and keep up with her. I also told her not to feel bad if I could not keep up, to go on without me. She was going for a PR and I did not want to hold her back!
I have never gotten to run an entire longer race with anyone! I was kind of super excited about being able to do that this time around. Dani is so inspirational all the time and I was looking forward to running and having fun. And have fun we did!
This course is a bit tough, I remebered it was hilly from last year. What I was glad for was the beautiful weather! Last year it down poured and was pretty miserable. But this year it was beautiful!I started out a little slow and my legs felt kind of heavy. But quickly I got over that and we settled into an 8:30ish pace and I was surprised as the miles ticked away I felt good.
I could not really believe it, for me this was such an eye opener. On one hand, here I was running a half marathon so soon after bad calf tear, and another, after running 17 miles the day before. I felt stronger than I have in months.
The last mile I pushed it and kept it under 8 min a mile and I knew then, that I would hit the one goal I had set for myself that day: have fun and finish in under 2 hours. I ended with a final time of 1:52:32 not too bad, I was happy. I was also very proud of Dani for coming in with me and finishing strong. She cut her old PR from 2:05 down to 1:51 in Chicago and held onto her sub 2 status even through some pain and hills.
After the race we met up with Robin to wish her luck in her half ironman in a few weeks!
Overall, this was a great race. I enjoy this half because it kind of kicks off the fall marathon and (ultra) marathon training season. Nothing keeps me more motivated than a race and I love Providence, it is only about 40 minutes away so it makes for a nice local one for me. I love having a local race to meet up with awesome running buddies and just take time to enjoy why I started running in the first place.
(Plus rock n roll races give a nice kick ass medal ;)
