3M Half Marathon

Last year Aixa got with me and asked if I wanted to do a double weekend race to celebrate her 40th birthday. Obviously I told her of course! It worked out that we could do the Houston half marathon and then 3M since they didn't fall on the same weekend this year. 3M is usually the on the same weekend as Aixa's birthday so it's fun to go race and then celebrate her birthday.

Well, it turned out that only Brian and I ended up doing the double weekend races because Aixa overslept race morning!!! I think it was an elaborate year-long con on her part, but I do feel bad that she missed the race. We drive up to Austin on race morning so she more than likely would not have made it up there in time for the race, or if she did, it would have been too hectic of a morning for her to enjoy the race. Not really an ideal way to start off your race! Race morning came cold and early (again) and we got there with just enough time to drop off gear bags, hit the port-o-pots, and get to the start line. I'll admit that I was a little unsure of how my day was going to go because my plan had been to hang onto Aixa's heels since I knew what her goal for the race was. I also knew Brian was going to run his own race and there was no way I could keep up with him. Plus, I lost the ear piece for my headphone so I ended up having to run sans music. Not necessarily ideal to be in your own head for the whole race but there was nothing I could do about it then.

So as I crossed the start line I just started my Garmin and told myself to run. This was my second attempt to crack 1:50 and I think I had told myself I need to average between 8:15 and 8:20 minute miles. The first couple of miles on this course is straight downhill before you hit some rollers so I was super stoked to see mile 2 was 7:58. It also freaked me out because I knew I couldn't hold that fast of a pace so I told myself to back off a bit. The next few miles were right were I wanted to be at 8:11 and I was feeling good. My legs could feel a little bit of fatigue from last weekend's race but they weren't too bad. I had placed myself between the 1:45 and 1:50 pace groups and I really had no idea where I was in relation to them because I hadn't seen any pacers the whole race. Around mile 9 I started to hear people on the sidelines yelling, "Go 1:50". This really almost messed with my head. And then I could hear the pacer yelling to her runners how far ahead of the pace they were and giving them tips on what to do on the next section of the course. I so didn't want to hear this!!! My pace was falling off the 8:20's and was now in the high 8:20's and I was getting frustrated. Mile 10 came and I told myself NOT to let the 1:50's catch me. I picked up the pace again and was happy to see it drop down into the 8:10's for mile 11. One more big hill before the downhill and then the hill to the finish line. I pumped my way up that hill and slowly but surely I heard the cheers for the 1:50's falling a little bit further behind me. Mile 12 was back down under 8:10. I knew I just had to hang on for one more mile. I started to get looks from other runners and I passed them because of the dying animal sounds I was making as I tried to get oxygen into my lungs. I didn't care. I WANTED that 1:49 I knew I was on pace for.

Super happy finisher!

That last stretch to the finish line was painful. It felt like I could barely pick up my feet to get me to cross that finish line but finally it was there! I stopped my Garmin and I saw the magic numbers I wanted to see:  1:49:21! I always call 3M my "assisted" half marathon PR race but after running it again, I'm going to take it as a legitimate race PR. It may have a mostly downhill elevation but you do have some legit hills on the course that can take you by surprise if you're not ready for them. I'm going to enjoy this milestone for a bit before I set new goals. Honestly, I think I'm sort of terrified to set a new goal so I just want to enjoy this one for a bit. :)