"Practice Run"

The store that is organizing the race we are running in had a "practice run" this past weekend. The mileage, 11 1/2 miles, was perfect for where we are in our training, so the three of us made arrangements to be able to run it. I still couldn't believe 11 1/2 miles was a "practice run" for this girl who used to hate running.


I woke up that morning with some nervous energy, mostly nervous about getting to the start location on time. It happened to be where the race would be starting, so I was glad to see where we would be running.


We got to the park in Alameda and about froze our poopers off waiting for the organizers to say "go". It was absolutely amazing to be surrounded by such a variety of women, old, young, mothers, runners, walkers, etc. When we started, we worked our way up in the group to find our pace. I thought we started out a little fast, but we quickly got to a comfortable speed and settled in for our long run.

We chugged along, saw the Oakland Coliseum, the Bay and then rounded a corner and saw an amazing view of the San Francisco skyline, it was beautiful, but super windy.


We kept running and running and running. April checked her Nike + and it said we were around 8 miles, awesome, we felt pretty good and only had 3 1/2 miles to go.


We crossed a bridge and thought we had about 2 more miles. At this point, we were both pretty tired and ready to be done. We put one foot in front of the other, figuring we can push through the next two miles.


We kept running and running and running. I think I told April that this seemed like the longest 2 miles of my life.


We finally rounded the corner to the park and saw the red tent. We gave it all we had to get across that finish line. We finally made it!


April checked her Nike +. It said 12.22.


12.22

WHAT?!

We thought her Nike + was just a bit off. Then more people started crossing the finish line and their Garmins, Nike +, etc. said 12 plus miles. We realized we had just ran over 12 miles. Less than one more mile and we would have finished our 2nd half marathon.

So, come June 5th, we will "technically" be running our 3rd half marathon. And, if the course and participants are anything like what we saw this weekend, I can't wait.