Reflections on half marathon number 4

Like April, I have started and deleted this post many times.

When I signed up for this race, I had the utmost confidence I could finish under 2 hours and cross that finish line with April.

We had months to train, started a one month cross training class, I started taking a spin class, I started doing my own core workouts at home, all signs pointed to me achieving those goal.

Then life got in the way.

I got super busy at work, the husband's hours at work got ridiculous, the kids started having more activities and, slowly, all my time for training started dwindling.

But I woke up the morning of the race with a "can do" attitude. I was going to leave it all out there, bust my butt to try and reach the goals and still aim for that sub 2.

After some hiccups at home, I made it to the race location with even more motivation to reach my goals. I had plenty of time to use the restroom, find my running buddies and mentally prepare for what I was going to do.

Turns out I had more then plenty of time as the race organizers pushed the start time back. Not just once, three times. It was cold. We were freezing and starting to get HUNGRY. I have to plan my eating so it won't cause any negative effects on my system when I am running, pushing back the start time was not going to help this.

They finally started the race and I did pretty well keeping up with April and Melissa. Then I started to see them pull away. I tried not to get down, kept telling myself to "race my own race", I had my trusty Garmin and could pace myself using that. I plugged along the most boring race course in the history of races (who the hell thought it was a good idea to have the course run along a levee of a drainage canal for 13.1 miles?!) and, even though it was advertised as a flat course, it was not. There were many many many subways under road that we had to run down and up, I am NOT a fan of hills, big or small.

I saw April and Melissa somewhere before the turn around and seeing them helped lift me up. I also saw my Aunt Stephanie not too long after that, nothing like a high five to push you along!

I continued to check my Garmin and figured I was not going to reach my sub 2 goal, but still was aiming for a PR.

As I cross the bridge at mile 12 that brings you back into the park where the finish line was, I was ready to throw in the towel. There was a strong headwind, people walking their dogs off leash so you had to avoid tripping and the finish line looked to be about 13.1 miles away.

But I pushed on and as I got to the bottom of the hill that lead to the finish line (yes, you read that right, a hill, finishing on a hill, fabulous) I saw a streak of yellow out of the corner of my eye and someone yelling "GO RACH". It was my sister's fiance, Dave. He had rode his bike from Santa Clara to see me run, amazing. Then I saw April who said "GO RACH, ITS AT 2:04!!!!". I was shocked. I kicked it into high gear and cross that finish line.

Official chip time: 2:04:45. PR BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No big surprise, I cried after crossing the finish line. All my hard work and I did it.

While I have yet to start and FINISH a race with April, or get my sub 2, I knew, after all the challenges we both faced to get to that start line that Saturday morning, we were going to be smiling all afternoon.