Monday, March 21, 2011

Race Results - Heart Half Marathon

Toddler Charlie made his running debut on Saturday afternoon at the Heart Mini Marathon Kids Fun Run. It was super cute, and he was SO excited to be racing.

Approaching the starting line - how cool is it that he got his own bib number and everything??


Toddler mayhem! This was before he looked back to check out the field of competition and took a nose dive on the track.


Showing off his hard-earned medal. He always wants to have it with him.



After Charlie's race, we went home for our big carb dinner - pasta with chicken. Then it was up bring and early to make it to the starting line for my own race - my first half marathon. The anxiety was running high, thanks to the reputation of the course - the 15K is infamous for the constant elevation change, and the half marathon they added this year included all of that course and more - two trips across the Cincinnati river. Those bridges are killer, and I know that thanks to my Pig training.

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I decided to run with the 9:45 pace group, which would give me a finishing time of about 2:07, a few minutes under my 2:10 goal. It felt slow, but I forced myself to stick with them because I just knew that the course was going to be a killer and I didn't want to start out too strong and then falter at the end. I lost them somewhere around mile 6 - just kept running and didn't look back. And it felt good. I ended up finishing in 2:02 (9:20/mile) - two minutes slower than my super unrealistic "someday it would be nice" goal of sub-2 hours. I feel like I could have done better - if I hadn't started out so slow, I could have made up those two minutes somewhere along the way. There's always next year!

Post Heart Half Marathon. Don't I just look thrilled to be standing out in the rain?


The runners posing with their medals.


26.2 up next - bring on the Flying Pig!

8 comments:

  1. Yay YOU! :) That's so fantastic! And Charlie looks so very proud. What a wonderful day!

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  2. Awesome job!

    I walked the Heart 5k last year and I do remember even that was ALL hill. Not a flat plane in sight. I can't imagine doing a half-marathon of it!

    You have done an awesome job of training, and improving yourself in this area! You should be proud!

    And... how cute is runner Charlie?!? Adorable!

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  3. oh a nose dive - ouch.
    Hey that run would be even tougher and colder if you didn't get to use the bridge.

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  4. That last pic of you two is so cute! Congrats on the half marathon.

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  5. Good job! I love Charlie's smile in that last pic :)

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  6. Awesome job! What a great model you're setting for your son! ;)

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  7. Awesome job! What a great model you're setting for your son! ;)

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