Run 4 Luv

First half marathon of the year! It was not pretty, the picture below makes me laugh because the expression on my face says it all. I am wiped out! Having a race at the beginning of the year was hard to train for, especially since I HATE the treadmill. So any run over 3 miles had to be done outside, any run done on the treadmill had bad times and was excruciatingly boring.
I signed up for this run back in October while I was still on the runners high from the City of Trees. But I'm glad I did it. It gave me motivation to run when all I really wanted to to was curl up inside under a blanket. But I was still very unprepared. 
I promised myself I will never go into another race feeling like that.  I hadn't run over 9 miles in months. I seriously considered switching to a 10k instead of the half but that was the easy way out and just not an option. 
I laced up my shoes and drank my pre-work out and headed to the race.
The start of the race was great and as I ran I was keeping my times in the low 9 minute a mile area. I felt good and around mile 7 I started thinking. Yes I can do this. I have this in the bag. Until I hit wall around mile 9.  Cardiovascular wise I was feeling great. My breathing wasn't labored and I had kept a good rhythm thus far. But my feet were starting to hurt, my knees were feeling achy and  I couldn't feel my toes. But I told myself I had to keep moving... Stopping wasn't an option. Pressing forward I kept thinking that this really is what life is like. We pass people, people pass us. We are all going at our own speed. We run with some people and then they either pull ahead or fall back. And most of all we are the only ones that can run our race. There is no cheating and no one else can do it for you. You are the one that earns your time. You have either put in the training or not. In this case I had not and was feeling the effects. Mentally I had to keep reminding myself that failure was not an option and that this could last as long as I wanted. I just had to run. The slower I went the longer it would take. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a new P.R., Only by a small amount but still 2 minutes is 2 minutes. And the fact that I had to slow to a quick pace walk 3 times made me realize that I am capable of more, and I wouldn't slack on my next race. I decided in that moment I would train harder. There is never and excuse to let the day pass away and not train.

Time was 2 hours 7 minutes, I look lots happier here, it was the beginning of the race.