Helloooooooo NEW HALF MARATHON PR!
I did it! I finished half marathon #4 in under 3 hours!
2:57 and 8 seconds to be exact! The Kristina who took over 3.5 hours to finish her first half marathon in Nov. 2013 is REALLY EXCITED about this!
My finishing time starts with a 2!!!!
This whole weekend was pretty great but the race was just perfect.
Next month the A1A Half Marathon will be my last race of this season, and I’m excited to go into it pressure free since I nailed my numero uno goal yesterday!!
Saturday: Expo Day
On Saturday Adam and I drove down to Miami to check into our hotel and head to packet pickup.
As part of my Christmas gift Adam booked a suite which was pretty cool, it was gigantic and the floor was made of marble! The living room in the suite was almost as big as our living room at home! I wish we could have brought Cecil, I think he would have liked it, haha!
The expo was pretty standard for a large-ish race. I don’t love crowds so I grabbed my bib, found my name on the race wall, took a picture and headed out to dinner since it was almost 5pm by that time and I always eat my pre-race dinner at 5pm.
What? It’s Miami, we all race in flip flops.
After dinner I was in bed by 8pm and asleep soon after! I think that may have been the first time I actually was able to fall asleep so early!
Sunday: Race Day
My wakeup call came at 4am since the corrals opened at 5 and the race began at 6:15.
I ended up going with the teal Sparkle Athletic skirt and black Under Armour tank. I really liked running in the skirt!
I brought a throw away sweater but threw it away a little too soon and was FREEZING in the corrals, which were located right in front of the AAA where the Heat play!
The race announcer said it was 53 degrees, the second coldest start in race history!! By the time my corral was set off I was so thankful to be moving!
My coach had me break the race down into segments:
Miles 1-4: Ease into it @ 13:45 pace.
Miles 5-7: Pick it up a little. Stay comfortable but keep pushing.
Miles 8-12: Ramp it up @ 13:25 pace.
Mile 13: Give it all you’ve got!
I did my best to stay on track – with the exception of mile 5 when I went a little bit too fast. I was just getting so excited that I was having a perfect day, but I reminded myself I still had more than half the race to go!
I honestly could not have imagined a better race day!
The first few miles just felt breezy and effortless. Around mile 9 I started wondering when my body was going to demand I slow down since that has always happened to me. Instead I was eventually able to pick it UP for the last couple of miles and really soar into the finish.
During miles 11 and 12 I just keep telling myself I HAD to pick it up because I didn’t want there to be a shadow of a doubt that I finished sub-3. I would have been happy with 2:59 but I knew finishing faster would mean there would be no question about what happened out there on the course!
Truthfully, I felt pretty AMAZING the whole time. The weather was PERFECT, I crushed my A-goal of running sub-3 and after the race I felt GREAT. I was able to walk normally and the soreness didn’t settle in until after the 45 min car ride home!
Oh yeah, and I had added Will Smith’s “Miami” to my playlist and it started just as I was rounding the corner into the finisher’s shoot! Incredible timing!
♫ PARTY IN THE CITY WHERE THE HEAT IS ON! ♫
I could not be happier with the way this weekend went! I hope you had a great weekend too!
Have you ever had one of those races where you just KNEW it was going to be a PR day once you started? When/where was it?
