Guest Post: Rach's first half marathon

Morning guys! Today my cousin Rachel is doing her recap of the half marathon. Feel free to leave her a comment! 

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Have you ever had a moment in time where you questioned your sanity? Well my moment occurred when my cousin Leanne asked me in October 2011 if I would be interested in running the Bluenose Half Marathon in May 2012 with her and Heidi. My first reaction was, "Seriously??!!" The more I thought about it, the more the idea seemed like an awesome way to push past my comfort zone of running 10 km races and reaching beyond to something much scarier and more daunting!

Training through the winter, I ran a lot on my treadmill due to the lack of prime running locations in a country setting in rural Cape Breton. I figured it would be better to arrive at the race with both legs intact. I started an awesome program that Heid shared with me to train for a half marathon in 16 weeks. Week by week went by and slowly the miles started added up and confidence started to build. I started thinking, maybe, just maybe, it is possible to run this race AND cross the finish line with a smile on my face!! My two awesome virtual training partners, Heidi and Leanne, were in Halifax and Calgary so texts were constantly flying back and forth with encouraging words and sharing our good, bad and ugly runs. It was so awesome to know that we were in this together!! If they can get up early and run 18 km, then I can too! When spring showed up with beautiful weather, I hit the road outside and joined a running club in the local town to get that extra motivation for those saturday morning long runs!

at the expo picking up our kits 

May 20 @ 8:45 - the morning we had been anticipating finally arrived!! What a beautiful Sunday morning it was. The gun went off and we joined 2000 other go-getters giving it all they had. I felt really strong the first half of the race and the support from the crowd was unbelievable! There were so many fun signs to inspire us and the streets were lined with young and old cheering us on. It was around 12 km that my stomach started feeling a little off and the combination of Advil and heat made the rest of the race challenging. Around 16 km, i slowed to a walk to get up a challenging hill. I will forever be grateful to the the volunteer who suddenly appeared beside me and said, "What are you doing walking?? Get going! Start running! You will get to the finish line faster!" Well she didn't know me but those words were exactly what i needed and they lite a fire under me and I was off again! The kilometers started dwindling down and the last few kms were all mental. I repeated positive statements to myself to get me through the tiredness.  The feeling of seeing the finish line in sight was so amazing and when i crossed it, I felt like I had accomplished such a huge victory! We had DONE it!!  All that training had been so worth it for that moment of complete satisfaction. I ran it in 2:15 which wasn't too bad for my first half marathon experience!

some of the half marathoners 

  

Finish Line!!

:)

So now I am wondering where I will run my next half marathon? I am addicted. I admit it.

Questions:

How did your first half marathon/race go?

What was your most memorable experience?