This was my second year running the Athleta Iron Girl Half Marathon in Columbia. Overall, it was a great experience. While running today, I set a new personal best of 3 hours and 7 minutes. My fastest to date was 3 hours 15 minutes. Overall, feeling pretty good about myself, especially since I ran negative splits.
Packet Pick-Up/Expo: This year it went much smoother than last year. Unfortunately last year they missed my registration and it took a lot on longer to get my packet. This year, I came prepared with my print out of what I paid for and to my surprise I found out that everything went through okay. I didn't spend too much time at the expo. I really didn't want to buy a lot of stuff. I just bought a pair of Iron Girl compression shorts and a magnet for my car. I was planning on getting compression shorts anyway, so it wasn't a needless purchase. Other than that, I peaced out pretty quick and was on my way back home. I really liked the swag bag, the t-shirt was nice and better fitting then last year. Last year's was white and shorter in length. This year, purple and much longer. A much better shirt! I also got my own water bottle butt thingy in my swag bag. It came with two water bottles and it also can hold your bib. I thought it was pretty nice.
The Race: Some days I am fine and other days I feel as though all I have to do is go to the bathroom. Today was one of those race days. I got to the race 45 minutes before the start and hit the PortaJane. Sadly by the time the race started, I had to go again, but I didn't. I spent a good majority of the race in the back with the same group of people, until mile 6.5 which was the halfway point. Then, all of the individuals I was running with got on a bus. I didn't realize that until the end of the race. Basically my competition thinned out. For a long while I was running by myself. Around mile 10 I spotted some other individuals ahead of me. I decided to pick up the pace and pass them. Afterall, these individuals were walking and I felt like since I had run almost the entire time that I should finish ahead of them. One by one I started picking off those individuals. Finally I had a 1/4 mile left. There was one women in front of me who was power walking and I was bound and determined to finish ahead of her. I took off in a dead sprint past her and rounded the last corner. Only to see the race clock. When I saw that the clock read 3:10:45, I ran as fast as I could to make it to the finish. I trotted across got my medal, made my way to the snacks, and the shuffled back to the car.
Why Was This Race Different? I have no idea why I ran so fast or why I ran a negative split. That NEVER happens! I had a lot of issues during this race, first I missed the 2nd mile marker and was confused when I ended up at mile 3 out of nowhere. I did the same for mile 4 and 5 and it wasn't until I got to mile 6 that I realized I somehow missed them. Athleta also omitted a really disastrous hill from last year. They gave us a hill, but not nearly as steep. There were still a lot of hills, but as I have mentioned many times before, I am used to hills and I walked very few hills during this race. I also had to go to the bathroom, which I think motivated me to move quicker because I did not want to have to stop and use the porta pot. This served as extra motivation to pick up the pace. I also decided that I was going to push myself.
Sorry no race pics, but I decided to let my hubby sleep in this morning instead of dragging him out to stand around for 3 hours. Currently I am very sore because I ran hard. But its a good kind of sore!
Up next, the Frederick Running Festival. I will be running both the 5k and the half marathon. Then, i will collect all of my medals.
Until next week, happy running!
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