Murray Half Marathon 2014

Two weeks ago I ran in the 4th annual Murray Half Marathon. I was pretty much roped into it from an old college friend who gave me a one liner of "If I can do you it you can do it." That was back in mid-February. I had thought about running it prior to this, but when I heard that I had no choice but to suck it up and sign up. Gah. Peer pressure is painful.

 

So I signed up and trained about 8 weeks. I wish I had trained longer, and maybe trained harder, because I felt better with my runs than I have in the past 4 years! I was actually pacing myself at about an 8:45 min-mile for long training runs and felt good through them. As I neared the day of the race I decided to make a goal of finishing in 2 hours or less. At least having a race PR. But...I didn't. I finished the race in 2:08:21. And to be completely honest I am super happy with this! There were several factors that slowed me down but the biggest one was the weather. Well, the wind. It was 15-20 mph and after about mile 6 the course turned straight into it, and became very hilly. At times I felt like I was running in place. To add insult to injury, it got really hot really fast and at about mile 12 my legs cramped up pretty bad. I had to walk about 150 feet but that didn't seem to help so I powered through it and just picked my run back up. And to add even more salt in a wound, when I rounded the last corner I could see the finish line...but I had to run UP A HILL!

 

I sound like I am whining, but really it was a great run. I really enjoyed it (despite the wind and muscle cramps) and the scenery was beautiful. The first year I ran it was in 2011 with Courtney and it was about 40 degrees and windy and raining. Yuck. This year the weather was beautiful and the spirit teams were fantastic! And although I wasn't running with anyone specifically I saw a bunch of people I knew, so that was fun. 

 

I am somewhere in this crowd.

Mile 10ish - Ready to be done!

Running UPHILL to the finish. And I look like (and feel like) I am dying!

Just spotted my family at the finish!

Our friend Stephen (who pressured me into running the race!) also ran the half marathon. His wife Erika and son Anderson ran the 5K!

After the half marathon we had some friends over for supper. We let the kids have a picnic and they thoroughly enjoyed each other's company! And the cupcakes!