The Lincoln Half Marathon

The morning of Sunday, May 5th, 2008 could not have been more beautiful. It was 40 degrees and sunny, not a hint of a breeze when the race started at 7:00 am. The wind picked up and by 9 there was a pretty cool breeze but it was perfect.

I met up with my PT school friend Stacia and gave her brother (our Sherpa) our gear and headed off to the starting line. The cannon went off and it took us about 3 1/2 minutes to get across the line. (There were about 5400 racers for the half and full marathon combined.) We headed out and ran a slow first two miles to get warmed up and then fell into a comfortable natural, very conversational pace. We chatted for about 10 miles and at mile 11 got a lot quieter. We had planned to run easy, maybe 9:30 miles.

Stats:
Time: 1:56:45
Pace: 8:55
Overall Place: 1430
Place in Gender: 550 of 2540
Division F2529 Place: 141 of 540
10K Split: 56:03

Splits:
Mile 1 - 9:22
2 - 10:18
3 - 9:00
4 - 8:48
5 - 8:58
6 - 8:46
7 - 9:18
8 - 8:50
9 - 8:38
10 - 8:46
11 - 9:10
12 - 9:10
13 - 7:09

These splits are from my iPod so they may not be completely accurate (and NO I didn't have any earphones, I just took the ipod and the sensor so I could measure my splits).
The first mile was a little faster I think because I turned it on before we got out of the chute so I wouldn't have to mess with it. Anywho, gotta love #13! 7:09. I rock. =-)

My mom and dad were out cheering us on at about mile 6 or so. My dad took this pic of us on the way by.



So, all in all my first official half marathon went awesome. I felt great endurance-wise, definitely could have kept running or run faster. Had some pain in my right Achilles by about mile 5, pain in my left ITB by about mile 11.5 and a really sore low back the next day. No idea why.

This may be where most people's days ended but not us triathletes. I had a long bike ride to go on. Stacia and I and a few others went and had lunch at a local bagel shop. It amused me that they were ordering bagels with light cream cheese. Sign me up for a whole wheat bagel with egg, cheese, and bacon! I actually drooled on my plate when I went to take my first bite! I laughed out loud at myself but not for long, I was trying to get that sandwich in as fast as I could! I drove back to Omaha and relaxed for an hour or so and then got on my baby blue TT bike and headed out. I took a bottle of Gatorade in my bottle cage and a Camelbak of water and a Snickers Marathon bar. My plan was to eat 1/4 of a bar every 30 minutes and drink Gatorade every 20 minutes with water throughout. I didn't take into account the wind. It was about 17 mph from the WSW which made it a cross wind for a good portion of the ride and a head or tail wind for a little chunk. I ended up riding for 2 hrs and 45 or so minutes for about 45 miles. Now for those of you who are math challenged, that means that I didn't have enough Gatorade or bar for the last 40 minutes or so. I was tired when I left and I was really, really tired by the time I got home. I would extend my leg on the pedal, flex my quad and it would fatigue immediately. Pretty awesome.

The funniest part about this whole day...
I decided to take an ice bath when I got home because my Achilles tendon was even more sore when I got off my bike. No kidding, I DROVE the block and a half to the gas station to get the bag of ice because I wasn't sure I would be able to get it home. Sunburned where I missed the sunscreen on my thighs and forearms, sore joints, some little blisters, and a huge smile! What a GREAT Sunday.