Saturday

One of the reasons we had decided to go mini golfing while we were here was that the courses appeared to be much cooler than those at home.

They aren’t. They are just as lame. However, they do have some fun decorations

Sitting on a giant octopus

Aaaah! A shark!!

So there was that. Plus, I won.

We spent the rest of the day walking around Broadway at the Beach and eating at The Giant Crab, a ridiculously huge seafood buffet with an old running buddy as well as a friend of hers and her mother.

When we got back I laid out my clothes for the race:

I’m so not usually this coordinated. I wanted to wear my “I don’t go all the way” shirt for good luck, and while picking up my packet I bought the above pair of shorts and decided to try some Jelly Belly Sport Beans for this race. Typically I haven’t bothered with them for a half marathon but since I tend to hit a wall around mile 8 I decided to give it a go this time.

Zzzzzzzz

Sunday/Race Day

5:15am comes very early, by the way. In case you were wondering. Bryan drove me to my friends hotel and I rode with them to the start line. Pre-race entertainment included a staged knight fight on horses courtesy of the Midevil Times actors. I’d seen it last year and couldn’t see over all the people anyway, so whatever. I was sad at first because I wanted to be able to bring my phone to photo document some, but it turns out I didn’t miss anything anyway.

And we’re off.

The course itself is actually pretty boring. The scenic part comes at the end. Where last year I was so excited to be almost done that the scenery could have been a garbage pile and, aside from the smell, I wouldn’t have cared.

I was only a bit behind the 8:00 mile pace balloon to start off, so I decided that if I could at least keep the balloon in my sights I’d be guaranteed to finish under 1:50. While my ultimate goal is 1:45, my current PR is 1:53 and some change so I thought I’d take it step by stap.

Strangely, I felt pretty good for 90% of the race. I started to get tight leg muscles at mile 5 but luckily it never got worse. I hit a small wall at each mile between 6-10 but nothing that was too hard to get over. I cursed myself initially for not thinking my playlist through bc I had slower songs playing in the middle, where I’m usually more tired. I ate a sport bean at mile 3, 5, and then each mile from 6 to 12.

I lost the 8:00/mile pace balloon somewhere around mile 10. Boo.

Turns out my music mixing skills are cooler than I thought, bc my playlist picked back up around mile 11. Heck yeah.

It was when I hit mile 12 at 1:38 that I realized, holy cow, I could totally finish this thing in 1:45.

So I picked it up.

Then I realized I was going too fast. So I slowed down.

Then I got a “your lungs have too much carbon dioxide right now” cramp. Nice.

And again, here we are on the boardwalk of the beach with a beautiful view, and all I cared about was the finish line. Bring on the garbage pile! I just want the end!

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am a robot.                                                                                         Bryan told me to “strike a pose”.

This is my creativity as its best.

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In the end, I crossed the finish line at 1:45:20. Darn you cramp. But who cares because I just beat my old PR by almost 10 minutes. As always, I was so happy to be done that I forgot to turn my watch off when I got across the finish line, so still unsure about “official” chip time.

 

WOO HOO!

I’m totally going to stuff my face with pancakes now, and take a nap.