Recap of the Half Marathon, Part 4, the Finale

Chapter 4: Aftermath & How I Feel About It

The small view of the race course, courtesy of CardioTrainer

A larger view of the race course that I pasted together...

After stretching I went to go get my fleece that I had checked in before the race...and promptly got lost!  I don't know how I missed it- I was coming from the other direction, but somehow I kept entering Mission Point Resort in the wrong places.  Walking up and down the steps to get to the right entrance was tortuous. I had to stop halfway up one flight.  I saw other people going up on all fours.  Finally I found the right place and got my fleece, and went back to the lobby to pick up Nate, Gina, Tyler, and Nate's mom.  

We walked back to the port where the ferry would pick us up in about an hour and a half.  Gina and her mom went into the shops again while Nate, Tyler, and myself went to Starbucks to get some coffee and relax.  The line was out onto the sidewalk!!  We got our coffee and went to our ferry's inside waiting area and sat and relaxed and drank coffee.  It was fantastic to sit and relax- truly heavenly!

After about 40 minutes of waiting we got on the ferry and crossed back to the mainland.  By the time we got off the ferry it was raining!  Not hard, but hard enough to make it a quite cold walk back to the hotel- about three blocks away.  Nate was walking fast enough that I had to jog to keep up with him.  It was terrible to jog...but it felt worse to be in the cold wet rain for longer than I had to be, so I hoofed it as best as I could.  I was pretty proud that I could still jog at this point!

Took a shower and went to dinner.  I didn't wear my medal to dinner even though I wanted to...next race I will wear my medal all day.  I got all you can eat crab legs and shrimp for dinner, and the best/most alcoholic grasshopper drink for after dinner that I've ever had.  Simply awesome.  Went back to the hotel and pretty much immediately went to bed after some more stretching and massaging.

My medal- hanging in my office currently!

Up close

So overall, how did it fair up?  Well, I loved doing it, I’ll tell you that.  I’ve already signed up for my next, a half in Green Bay in May.  I know I’m going to do a full marathon, hopefully next fall.  But, as I said, I’m torn with this race.  I know I should just be happy that I finished, but I’m really disappointed with my time.  Not even that I guess- I would be fine with that time if that was truly my best effort, but it’s not.  I didn’t train for months.  I lost sight of this goal because of having so many other (admittedly more important) things going on in my life that the same time.  I know I can do better, so I’m not satisfied with this race at all.  It’s especially disinheartening to look at my race log and see that when I was training really consistently I ran a 5K with a 10:48 average mile split.  When you plug that into a race calculator, that means I should have been able to run a half marathon in 2:33:45.

I guess overall I’m still just really impressed that I did this.  I mean for god sakes, last year I was 25lbs heavier and couldn’t run for more than 60 seconds without wanting to die.  I’m also the only person I know besides Stacey and her mom who have done a half marathon.  People do them all the time, but not in my social or family circle, so I’m pretty proud that I get to be the exception to that.

I also feel proud that I could take 2 months (essentially) off of running and still finish 13.1 miles.  Plus Gina and I walked for 2-3 miles that morning looking at stuff on the island.  That alone would make an unfit person sore.

I can’t wait for my next race!