I'm a Half Marathon runner!

So one month late (I will get better about this), I finished my first half marathon!!! One of the main reasons I started this was to document my running journey and it's crazy it's over. Here's my Surf City Half Marathon 2015 race recap...

The day before the race.

B and I went down to Huntington Beach the day before the race. His mom and stepdad met us down there because his stepdad was also running! We drove the course on the way up! 

We got to stay at a really cool hotel that was right across the street from the Expo. It was such a nice thing that we were staying at a hotel because we would have had to drive from LA to Orange County two days in a row and on race day it would have been super early in the morning. We went to the Expo, picked up our packets, and looked at all the really awesome (overpriced) running swag that I wanted but didn't need. We stuck to the free samples...

We grabbed some lunch and omgggg the best part of the entire training process was the carbo-loading. I was a swimmer until college and this was the best part of race day and oh how I missed it. After gourging our faces, we went to the pool to relax for a few hours. After the pool we caught the sunset as we sat by a fire pit.

The relaxing led to napping and then I'll give you one guess as to what we did next - carbo-load dinner!! Haha we got spaghetti and it was delish. We walked back to our room, got our gear ready. watched some friends to calm our pre-race jitters and went to bed by 10.

Race day!

My alarm went off at 5:30am. Our wave started at 8:00am but I wanted enough time to get coffee and eat breakfast because I feel sick if I run on a full stomach. 

Oh and our race fell on Super Bowl Sunday so obvi I rocked my 12th man gear. For breakfast I had a muffin and a banana and coffee. 

We went to meet B's parents at their hotel before we had to head to the finish line. I wasn't nervous until about 25 minutes before. But while we waited in line I got a more nervous. 

The Race 

My strategy was to make sure that I didn't start out too strong. I went out at exactly a 10 minute mile. The first couple miles flew by. At mile 3, they had a turn and you went up a hill. I was dreading that part but it ended up being my favorite part of the race because it wasn't just a straightaway and so it added some excitement to the flat, straight course. We got back to the straight part at mile 6. That is where it got difficult. The course just went straight and all you could see for literal miles ahead was runners upon runners. It was really boring and mentally tough because it seemed so never ending. We finally hit the turn around at mile 9 (where I saw a fellow Hawks fan!) and then we went back the exact same way we had just come. And it was a slight uphill the entire time. Those miles were the worst.

At mile 12 I was really hating my life. I thought the last mile would be the easiest because I would be close and there would be people to cheer me on, but it was not the best mile. I just wanted the damn race to be over!!!! And the worst part was the fact that the Nike run app on my phone was saying that I was over when I wasn't!!!! 

All in all, I finished the race in 2.04.45. I was really happy! I definitely want to do another one soon (I'm shooting for the Nike women's half in SF in October) because my next goal is to break 2 hours, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying this time off from running right now. I have been going to the gym and swimming more for cardio. I've only been running 3-5 miles. It's been a nice change of pace and I'll keep it up for probably another month before I get back into running again. For next time, I want to add in some more speed/track workouts in addition to my normal training. I also don't want to neglect strength training. 

But for now, I'm really enjoying the break :)