So I had signed up for the Publix Georgia Half Marathon a while ago.
For the last week or so I had been contemplating switching to the full.
I kept going back and forth - like it'd be so awesome to have a second
marathon done but I want to try to PR again in the 1/2 and it'd be
easier and I'm not sure if my body would be able to handle it. I hadn't
done any real training since Disney. My longest run post Disney was 12!
But at the expo, my legs seemed to feel okay and I just went ahead and
did it and switched to the full. I didn't really tell anyone because I
was afraid I was going to have problems and not finish.
So Saturday I got some carbs in, rested my legs most of the day and then
tried to get to bed early. Nice thing was I was able to sleep until
almost 5 - for Disney I had to get up at 245am.
I ended up getting there late - after I checked my gear, I started to
the corrals and they were already playing the anthem! I didn't get a
chance to make a pitstop and finally snuck into Corral E - since the
race had already started.
First two miles was mostly just trying to get there as fast as I could
because I had to go to the bathroom. Then until the split at mile 7, it
was pretty easy going. There were some nice cheering sections. At the
split it was pretty crazy to see the amount of runners staying on the
half - seeing as I had been in the same spot the last two years -
there's a LOT of runners. But after the split, it was soo quiet.
The hills started. I made a couple more stops to go to the bathroom
before mile 13 but was okay after that. When I came up on the 1/2 point,
I was surprised that I was a good 10 min faster than I had done at
Disney (since I felt I was walking so much).
There were so few runners (due to the fact that there were less than 2k
marathon finishers and that I'm so slow) that sometimes it was tough to
know where the course was. I never had any trouble because the course
support was great but it felt kind of lonely at times when there was
only a few people that you could see. Finally made it back downtown -
yay - and the Tech area. It was nicer here because we were back on the
1/2 course so the cheering was back up. Got to Tech and saw my time and
knew I was going to PR by then (even if I had to walk the rest). So I
tried to run when I could - got to the last mile - and saw the 1/4 mile
left sign. And I started booking it when I saw the finish line and the
time.
Feet are killing me and I've chaffed in places I didn't know could get
chaffed but #2 is done. After Disney I didn't think I'd run another but
got it in my head that I really wanted to finish under 5. So I'm happy I
did it.
My Disney time was 5:05, and I finished this one in 4:50!!
