My first half marathon!

Saturday was the day. My first ever half marathon! It was the American River Parkway half that ran along the beautiful American River bike trail from William Pond park, down past Sac State and back. The weather was better than I could have even hoped for considering the forecast the week before had predicted rain that day! It was even a little warm near the end, so much so that a few people passed out due to heat exhaustion. Luckily I came prepared with water and fuel so the aid stations that ran out near the end didn't even effect me. SacFit taught me well!

For the first half of the race I stayed with some great magentas and we had a great time, but at about mile 7ish I decided to pick up the pace and ended up getting pretty far ahead of them. I had pain in my leg around mile 9, but I made it to the end and that's what matters! I saw that finish line and I sprinted to the end and finished strong! Adrenaline really does wonders at making pain disappear! Sabrina was there at the end waiting for me and ran me in some of the way before I sprinted ahead. I was so ready to be done and so glad I made it to the end! My garmin time was 3:12 and my official time was 3:15. I am pretty happy with that time considering my only goal was to finish. Matt was waiting for me at the finish too with some beautiful flowers!

All in all it was a great race and I can now say I am a half marathoner! My next race is a 5k on June 6th and I am possibly doing the Urban Cow 1/2 in October as well. We shall see if this leg pain can get better with some new shoes and foam rolling. The next SacFit season starts June 12th and I plan on being out there for sure! Possibly as a pace coach, depending on if Ken lets me considering I will miss 3 weeks because of my wedding and honeymoon!

Here are some pics of the race.

Zoo Zoom 10K race recap - pics coming soon!

Sunday was my first ever 10K race, the Sacramento Zoo Zoom! I ran the race with Matt and his dad, Jeff. We got there way early (7:15ish) because parking in Land Park can be a mess, especially with this many people. The forecast called for rain and gusty winds, something I was hoping and praying held off until we were done! (They did!) We hung out by the start line and watched the 5kers get going and that is when Sabrina (Matt's mom) notified me that there was a cut-off and that we had to keep a 14:00/mile pace so that we were in front of the people opening the roads up after the race. This made me beyond anxious! I was not mentally prepared to go quite that fast, and I am not sure Matt and Jeff were either. We didn't let it phase us too much though because we started the race at 8:35am with all of the other 10kers.

The start was pretty anti-climactic. We had decided before the race started to do 3 minute walk intervals followed by 2 minute running intervals. The first interval we did backwards though so we could get away from the crowd. The whole race we kept counting the people behind us because we were pretty close to the back of the pack. Right off the bat my IT band started aching. I thought I had rested it enough and foam rolled it enough and iced it enough, but alas. It basically hurt me the whole race. I was very disappointed by this and it sorta made me wonder if I can finish my 1/2 marathon on May 1st, but I guess that's another post. I digress...

We started pretty strong and I could tell Matt wanted to go faster and Jeff was struggling slightly. I was pretty happy with our pace, but could have been happier had my leg not hurt! We did the 3/2's the whole race, which was an awesome accomplishment! We had a great cheering section at the turn-around and then at the finish; Matt's mom and his little brother.

The finish was the part that made this race good instead of great. The race had a string of kid's races attached to it, well, at around the time we were finishing they started a kid's race which ended at the same finish line we were going to. So basically to get to the finish I had to dodge kids and their parents who had stopped inside the finish chute to take pictures and give hugs and all that. I was mad! I am sure my time could have been at least a minute or two faster had I been able to sprint at the end like I always do!

So, I raced and finished my 1st ever 10K! My time was around 1:25 and our average pace was about 13:49/mile. Will I ever do one again? Maybe. I am sure I will be more excited about racing once my IT band pain subsides, or at least improves. After the race we ate at Willie's. I am glad I had run 6.2 miles beforehand so I could eat all those fries and not feel too bad! I will be posting pics from the race sometime today or tomorrow. My next race recap post will be for the 1/2 marathon on May 1st. I am starting to get a little anxious!