Lake ___ Half Marathon

Distance: 13.1 miles
Duration: 01:56:49
Average Pace Per Mile: 8:55
Weather: At 7:33 am it was 42 degrees. South wind at 6 mph. At 11 am it was 69 degrees and Sunny!!!! Can you say HA-HA-HOT?!

This was my third year to run this race. 2009, I ran the 5K. I was two months post-pregnancy. 2010, I picked this as my first half marathon race. My finish time last year was 02:02:10. So, I'm pleased I managed to shave several minutes off, this time around. PR!

This race is a small one, but I love it. You don't get all the goodies, that maybe you'd get in a bigger race, but there is something about running lakeside, being close to home, running a familiar route, that makes me want to run this race every year.

I've been tracking my fitness progress online on a site called DailyMile. It's basically Facebook for athletes. Right before the race, I met-up with some fellow DailyMilers, Jennifer and Travis. They are a married couple from the Abilene area.



















Jennifer is more along my fitness level and Travis is a Boston Marathoner.



I started the race way too fast. I looked down to check my time right after the first mile and it was somewhere in the high 7 minutes (7:50 ish). I'm not that kind of runner. I'm a 9 minute a mile kind of runner. By mile three, I started to find my rhythm and around that same time, I ran into Jennifer and Travis. They were about to pass me, but I figured I'd piggy back on their pace. It worked for me and made for a fun race! Travis would call out our splits and do most of the talking. I was actually surprised that I could carry on a conversation while racing. Who knew?

Somewhere around mile 10 Travis and Jennifer stopped for a bathroom break. But the last mile Travis caught back up with me and helped paced me to the finish line. He was cheering me on and at one point possibly running backwards. Showoff! (haha)

In my finish photo you may notice I'm missing a layer. Well, actually I tied my shirt to my waist. I was burning up and I just about lost it, so my under shirt had to GO. I felt so much better, once I shed that shirt. 10 pounds lighter. At the end, I really wanted to slow down, actually I did quite a bit around mile 11 and 12. So, in a way I'm glad that I did start strong, but then again it makes me wonder if I would've paced myself better, from the get go, I may not have hit the wall so bad. It's a fine line. Even with that being said, it was an awesome race! I loved every minute of it, even the humongous hill.

And special thanks to Lululemon for all their support! I ran in my lulu gear and I can tell that all that speed work is paying off!