Mile 10, let's do it again, mile 10 let's do it agian!

Workout
4.5 miles outside with my sister

I was hesitant at first to do a recap of the Carlsbad half marathon since I was so disappointed in how I did, but regardless, I finished and I guess we are all bound to have bad races here and there.sitting in the car before the race

Morning of I had a cliff bar and a piece of toast for breakfast and coffee. I was feeling good and wasn't nervous at all. We got to Carlsbad without any problems, went to the bathroom, sat in the car a little bit longer and then walked to the start line. My sister, Christine, Dave and Brett all went to wave 2 while Katie and I walked back to wave 3 so that we could hang out with the 2 hour pacer. Right before the start line I turned on my ipod and it froze. Great, but I can restart it, right? Wrong, my ipod buttons don't always work, today included so away it went in my pocket and I was just going to have to sing out loud and ponder silently for 13.1 miles, super duper. Since it was right before the start it kind of threw me off and messed with my concentration.

For the first 3.5 miles I had a steady pace of about 9:05 and stuck with Katie and the pacer. I was bored out of my mind though and already wanted to quit, I could also feel blisters forming on the arches of my feet.

At mile 4 I decided to slow down and leave the pacer and Katie because mentally I just wasn't feeling it. Mile 5 and 6 I didn't see the markers but I had turned back to the finish so I knew I was at least half way. I was getting really tired at this point and my pace was getting slower and slower. I was drinking water at about every station, I tried the ultima energy drink they had but it was absolutely disgusting so I stuck to water after one sip of that.

Finally I hit mile 7, I was still going pretty slow, but I was a little happier since I was over half way.

Mile 8 there was a pretty big hill, there was actually some more hills before this that really surprised me since the website had said it was supposed to be flat, not so much. I actually walked a few times, unheard of for me during running. Granted it was only about 10 seconds at a time but I literally had NO motivation at the time.

Miles 9, 10, 11, 12 went by fairly fast considering my snail pace. The 2:10 and 2:20 pacer had passed me at this point and I knew there was no way I was going to PR from my first race. I was so disappointed and was being really negative, bad I know. My favorite part of the whole race was when at mile 10 two guys behind me starting screaming " Mile 10, let's do it again" over and over. That sorta pumped me up, but I was still dying. The mental factor really takes a toll on your body.

Finally I hit mile 12 and I knew I could do 1.1 more miles. I wish I could say I sprinted that last mile, but mentally I had already given up and no longer cared about my time, I just wanted to finish, whether it was going to be sooner or later, later in my case.

I saw the finish line and picked up my pace.

Final time 2:35:07 11:50 pace blahhhh

my 6.6 split was 1:08:32 10:23 pace

Oh well, at least I didn't quit. I am definitely going to have to work on not being so hard on myself because there is NO WAY I am going to finish the San Diego Rock and Roll full marathon in June with that attitude. I could blame my poor performance on the no music thing, which was a factor, but it was mostly me being so negative the whole time.

After the race I picked up my free bag of food and then went to find my sister and friends so we could head to pizza port for pizza and beer!! BTW my sister did amazing and finished in 1:48:52 woo hoo!! She is way to speedy for me. I try to run with her but I can never keep up. Maybe in a few months. I'm picking up my running big time so that I can dominate the full marathon in June, let the fun begin!

finisher medal and really cool race shirt. picture is from skinnyrunner.com I was too lazy to go get my stuff and take a picture. SR ran the race too but is way to fast for me so I never saw her.

post race fiesta at pizza port