Double 1/2 Marathon weekend

I originally was only going to race in the Endurathon 1/2 Marathon on Saturday out in Bulverde this past weekend, but after a training run with my friends, they decided they were going to race the Hero-thon 1/2 Marathon on Sunday because we could dress up in some really cute costumes.  After giving it some thought and debating if I could really run two back-to-back 1/2 marathons, I decided to do it.  I ran the idea past my coach who gave me the go ahead.Saturday morning brought weather that was warmer than expected and some misty murkies, which was great because the drizzle kept us cool and the sun stayed behind the cloud cover.  Coming into this race I was still unsure if I just wanted to "cruise" this race and save my legs for the next day or push it on Saturday and see what my legs had left for Sunday.  I decided to just see how I felt after I started running and decide then.  Well, I ended up feeling great and, with Brian's perfect pacing for me, I was able to PR on the hilliest course I've ever run.  My final time was 2:07:40.  My proudest moment of the race was the last 1/2 mile of the race.  It was uphill and I was pushing as hard as I could and Brian was telling me to "Kick it" in to the finish line.  I managed to overtake three people on that uphill and I felt so bad for one girl that I passed who, when she saw us, said, "Agh, I thought I had this!"  I know that feeling!!  I ended up taking 5th place in my age group out of 12 girls.  Super stoked about that!

After the race I immediately went into repair mode.  Recovery shake, dipping my legs in ice water (AGHHHH!), and rolling and stretching.  Believe it or not my legs were feeling pretty good, which gave me some hope for the race the next day.  I really wanted to beat the 2 hour mark.  The Hero-thon was going to be a much flatter course and I was hopefully that I could be close.

Hero-thon Sunday morning came and we all were excited to run in our fun costumes.  With the abnormally warm weather in January our suits were comfortable to run in.  The Iron-Whiners were all stoked to see if we could smash this course and make it to the finish line in under 2 hours. 

Aixa took off at the start line and I didn't see her until the turn around around mile 10/11.  She was looking awesome and she ended up with a tie of her previous PR....not bad after biking almost 80 miles the day before and being on call for work!  It was also her birthday weekend, so this was an awesome birthday gift for her!

I caught up to Shelly and Linda around mile 2/3 and I hung with them until mile 5 when my legs caught up to me.  They pulled a little ahead of me and I was able to keep them in my sights until about mile 6/7 when I saw them pull ahead of the 2:00 hour pace group and I got super excited for them.  They were going to go under 2 hours!!  Both Shelly and Linda got PR's with a 1:54 or 1:55 (official results have not been posted yet, boo!). 

I was hanging on with all I had.  As I passed each mile and saw my time, I knew I wouldn't crack 2 hours but I was going to be pretty darn close!  At the turnaround I saw Kris closing in.  I was so happy about this because she had fallen back pretty quickly but I knew she was going to make up that ground.  I saw Brian and our friends Lexa and Jaime cheering us on at around mile 11 but I had no energy left but to give them a thumbs up.  At mile 12 Kris came up along side me and told me to come with her.  I held on to her heels for half a mile but she was in the zone!!  She crushed her previous time and finished at exactly 2 hours!  I managed to pass up one girl running up the Durango bridge (that was just evil) and hold her off as I crossed the finish line at 2:01:ish!!

Afterwards we had so many people stopping us and getting our picture in our outfits.  We even had the news interview us.  Luckily, Aixa is a great public speaker so she was nominated to talk!

I never thought that I would be able to PR two back-to-back races but it's amazing what you can make your body do.  Thanks to the support of everyone I had this weekend.  My amazing friends who always encourage me and were just as tired as I was because they had biked 80 miles the day before, my coach for believing in me, and my wonderful husband who helped me gain one PR and who made sure I was ready for the next one!