“You will never run a sub-2 half marathon if you start in Corral C,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head. I followed her and Shelby to Corral B, slipped in, started my music, and tried to get in the zone. “There are your pacers,” Elizabeth continued. “Keep them in sight at all times. You are going to have to fight the crowd to stick with them. This isn’t going to be fun; it’s going to hurt. You have to be focused at all times. Don’t think about anything but staying on pace. I’ll stay with you as long as I can, but this is just a training run for me, so I’m not going to go all out for 13.1 miles. Good luck!”
I waited, deliberately breathing slowly, wondering, “Why the hell did I decide to do this?”
“This” was the Akron Half Marathon. It was my second time running Akron, and it was my fifth half marathon. Even though I ran two half marathons in May, I realized that every race, every training program, every bite of food I did or did not put in my mouth for the past nine months had led to this very moment.
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In December 2013, Shelby and I decided that we wanted to run a half marathon in less than two hours.
You’ve read my goal posts (See what I did there?), so you know the ugly getting-there details. This was the moment where it all came together.
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The night before, I went to the Expo to pick up my bib, my shirt, and my racing singlet (Team Panera!).
I laid out my racing gear.
And I did my best to get some sleep. The next morning after I ate my pre-race Panera blueberry bagel, Joy and I got lost in my own hometown while I tried to navigate the closed streets to get to my VIP parking spot. Alas, I gave it up and parked in one of the many available spots in a parking deck near the starting line. Then came the the hurry-up-and-wait time with my peeps until the start. I took some pictures in the pitch-dark, but you can’t see these pictures unless you read the whole post here!
Then, after nervously high stepping in the corral, the race started. I don’t know if I am ready to write about everything I felt. . .It’s too soon, and I think I need to digest some more. This is what I can write about for now:
Hey, you didn’t think it would be the whole post, did you? Click here if you wanna see some great pictures and if you want to know how I finished!
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