waffleweave: Annapolis Half Marathon

Well, I did it! I finished my first half marathon. S and I did it together, which was great (she beat me, but I attribute that to her youth and to the fact I hardly slept at all the night before).

Why show a picture of us in the car, not at the finish or at least outside? It is actually a pre-race picture of us waiting until just before the race starts, because it was pouring rain. Pouring. It rained for a good hour before the race and for about the first hour into the race, leaving huge puddles that we had to jump over or run around. At one point on the course, a runner next to me jokingly asked where the rope swing was, because it certainly felt like an obstacle course (though nothing like this). At least the rain kept the temperature down and the sun hidden away.

I beat my time goal of 2 and a half hours and finished in 2:27:02, for an average mile pace of 11:14. Not bad considering the longest training run I had ever done was 10 miles, so those last 3.1 miles of the race were uncharted territory, to say the least.

S and I drove over to Annapolis the day before the race so that we could do a little sightseeing. It is a cute town, with a cute Main Street, and the Naval Academy is a really pretty place to walk around. We even saw a wedding there and witnessed the bride & groom exiting the huge chapel. That same wedding had their reception at our hotel, so it was a little noisy in the halls that evening (not ideal when you're trying to go to sleep early the night before a race).