My slowest best ever!
I am pretty proud of that.
This year I have already PR’d in 2 distances and have run my second fastest in another 2 distances. The San Antonio Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon was purely for fun. It was my race to catch up with friends.
I have been running with Team in Training in support of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for 4 years and have been a mentor for a flex team this season. Going to the race allowed me to meet all my Team in Training friends and meet my mentees finally. One of my running friends snuck up on me at the Expo and this whole race weekend became a weekend of running with friends.
At the start line it was pretty clear that this was not a day to PR. It was hot and humid. My friend, who I was going to run with, hadn’t trained properly (he is a running coach and now has a story to tell on what NOT to do…) as he had an injury recently. So we set off with the goal to make it to the finish line and have as much fun as possible in-between.
Mile 3 (ish): The Alamo. A number of friends had planned to hang out in front of the Alamo. I missed 2 of them, one of them apparently shouted out my name, but I missed that, too. But we saw one of them, shared a hug and a high-five with her son.
Mile 6 (ish): One of my friends from Waco came up from behind me. I hadn’t seen her since last year’s race, so we chatted for quite a while. I met her boyfriend, who ran with her.
Mile 8 (ish): Another friend took a photo of me and my running buddy.
Mile 10 (ish): We passed the Team in Training cheering group, shared a few more hugs and high-fives.
Mile 11 (ish): I cheered up a new Team in Training runner, who was sad she wasn’t running well. I told her to focus on the medal and not worry about time. It’s hot and humid, best excuse to run slow.
Mile 13.1: Got an awesome medal.
This was the fourth time I ran the San Antonio Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon and I think I am done with this race. It has been my very first half marathon in 2008 and will always hold a special place in my running heart, but I am finally tired of the course. Next year I’ll need to find a new fall race in November, somewhere where it’s a little less humid maybe.
Happy running!