i thought complaining enough about last year’s half marathon weather would have appealed to the weather gods enough to give me excellent weather this year, but that was not the case! april is so fickle.

liz and doug came up for the annual earth day half marathon, and doug was definitely the best trained and most excited about running this morning. i guess the plus side to this race is that it has an 8:30 a.m. start, which is later than a lot of HM starts! anyway, some highlights:

1. liz and i started off slow. too slow, we think. when you take off for a race with that many people, you have to consciously make an effort to not overdo it right away, and i think we overdid our overthinking.
2. the first half of the race, we had a leapfrogger who was SUPER annoying. liz and i run, or try our best to run, the entire race, especially at the beginning. this means we go a little slower, but we have a consistent pace. many people at the back of the pack are walk-run-walk-run-walk-run, which is really annoying in a race this length. a woman would run past us, then stop to walk about 6 feet in front of us. she leapfrogged us probably 10 times. super annoying.
3. our best mile was mile 7-8! usually it’s mile 4, but i guess we were still stuck in slow mode.
4. the water stations on this course are FANTASTIC. they have one every 2 miles. usually it’s every 3 miles.
5. the back half of the race, we were running straight into some godawful wind. 15mph wind this morning, and 30-ish degrees. it was not fun, and my lips were numb. when i tried to chew my mid-race fuel gummies, they were almost frozen, and my jaw was so cold i couldn’t chew them.
6. but we had hot-hands thingies, which was really helpful. i held one up to my jaw so it could warm up to chew.
7. why oh why is there a giant hill at mile 11? please, someone reverse the race so we can go down that hill instead of up.
8. we finished sub-3 hours! which is all we ask for. we were walking a lot more toward the end, and i peer-pressured liz into running the last 3/4 mile or so.
9. my SKIRT was super handy. i was still a little chilly, but not as cold as i could have been!
10. this was the first time, i think, that i ran a HM with no braces, tape, wraps, or toe assists. in fact, my legs, knees, and feet have been surprisingly good feeling for a while now. *knock on wood*
11. of course we went to a bar afterward and had greasy food and bloody marys.
12. after we got back to my house, we promptly fell asleep for like, an hour. i didn’t even take a shower first. just zonked on out.
13. i don’t know why, but after HMs, my muscles are just sore, which is really weird because i train faster and on similar terrain. i’m not sure if it’s because it was colder, or earlier, or what. but it usually happens in all conditions!
14. and now to prepare for the next HM in two weeks!
    

ps: it’s almost 9 p.m., and the horizon still has a glimmer of gloaming on it!