Half Marathon Race Recap!

I finally completed my first half marathon! YAyyy!! This has been a long term goal of mine so I'm extremely pleased that I can finally check it off of my list of things to make happen. All in all, it was such a great experience, so here's a look back at the pre/during/and post race festivities!

So Friday night my good friend Katie (who was also running the half) cooked an amazing meal for carbo-load dinner and invited all of her friends running in the race. Needless to say, I was a happy girl with my plate of whole wheat pasta with homemade vegetarian tomato sauce :)

What a spread!

 After heading to bed at a semi-early hour of 11 pm, I got a good 8 hours of sleep before my alarm went off promptly at 7am. I wanted to have plenty of time to get ready and eat breakfast before we left for the race at 8. For breakfast- a whole wheat sandwich thin with Crofter's raspberry jam and a banana.

Into my race gear bright and early!

Our race wasn't starting until 9:45 (which is pretty late for races), but we still had to get there plenty early because of how big the race is...we didn't want to get stuck in traffic! I heard on the news that there were 27,000 people running in the Baltimore Running Festival total (including the 5k, half marathon, full marathon, and a kids fun run), and about 15,000 of those people were running the half!

Because we got there so early, we had time for a little pre-race photo shoot. 

Here's the best "before" shot! 

And then before we knew it, it was time to head to the starting line! After the gun went off, we didn't reach the starting line until about 5 minutes later because of all the people!

Photos courtesy of my friend Taylor's lovely parents :)

Waiting for the race to start!

When the race really got going I was feeling pretty good. I had a huge rush of adrenaline and I think that caused me to go out a little too fast for the first few miles. Then we hit a number of hills that really killed my legs right off the bat. After I recovered from those not so fun hills, I decided to back off for a while and slow the pace in order to save my energy for later in the race. For miles 4-8 I just listened to my body and didn't push it. At mile 6.5 we got to run around this beautiful lake in north Baltimore. The scenery was so distracting and before I knew it we were at mile 8! Mile 8 covered the last of the hills and by mile 9 I was passing by Hopkins' campus and got to see some of the Sirens cheering me on! Seeing some familiar faces gave me a great boost of confidence and energy that lasted until the end of the race. Luckily miles 10-13 were pretty much all down hill. My legs very much appreciated that. I cruised into the finish line with a time of about 2 hours and 4 minutes. For a first time race, it's not a bad time at all, but I think that next time I will definitely try to push it more. I was too afraid of burning out early, but next time I'll know that I can keep up a faster pace. 

All in all, my body felt pretty good throughout the race. The only thing that started to bother me was my left hip about half way through. I've never experienced hip pain before so I was surprised that of all the pain my body was subject to, my hip was where it resonated. I ran through it though, and it didn't prove to be detrimental to my race at all. 

Joey took this picture at mile 12.5...almost done!!

The "after" pictures :)

 Then it was time to head to a much deserved brunch with my fellow race finishers and our supporters! Thanks Joey and Alex! :)

This heavenly treat is known as the Funky Monkey bread and you can find it at Ms. Shirley's--a famous Baltimore restaurant most well known for the best diabetes-inducing delicious food in the city. I didn't care though, I ate almost half of that thing and THEN had oatmeal and a few bites of pancake (along with lots and lots of water!). 

Then it was time to SLEEP! I went home, showered, and was out cold for a solid 2.5 hours. When I woke up, I had a headache, and my knees and hip were on fire. I felt like a grand-ma limping around my apartment. After I guzzled some water my headache subsided (meaning that I was most likely just dehydrated), but my knees and hips are still hurting today. I guess they just aren't used to that much pressure on them! Oh well, they'll feel better in a few days I'm sure. 

The rest of the night was spent having a great big dinner and then falling asleep on the couch at 11 pm while watching a movie. I let myself sleep in until 10 am this morning so I got a great 11 hours of sleep! I feel sooo well rested today. Now I'm off to get some work done in the library! I'll have another update for you guys later in the week! 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :)