My first Half Marathon: A2A Half Marathon

I’m official a runner. Yes, I feel that running a half marathon finally earns me the “right” to say that.

Yesterday, Kacy and I ran the Arbuckles to Ardmore Half Marathon in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Well, we ran through a few tiny towns to get there–but in short, we were in the middle of nowhere.

We drove down on Saturday to save us a few precious hours of sleep on Sunday morning.  We started our “half marathon experience” by stopping by the expo, picking up our packets, and buying lots of goodies (I bought a spibelt, some cool earphones, and a random running notecard). With my new running gear in tote, I started to feel really excited about the race.

After spending too much money at the expo, we went to dinner with Kacy’s parents and enjoyed our evening stealing food and suckers from our hotel.

The hotel was really nice, minus a near freeze out experience. We didn’t realize that thermostat on the wall and not on the window unit. Rookie mistake I guess.

After the room warmed up to a reasonable temperature, we laid out our race clothes.

After a good nights sleep (and a few encouraging text messages from a cute boy), we were up at 5:30. We got ready in no time, enjoyed some breakfast, and headed out to meet the buses.

After being lost for a good 10 minutes, we made it to the buses and felt like kids again being shuttled to the starting line.

We arrived about an hour early and we realized that we truly were in the middle of nowhere.

The weather that morning was great. Just a little cool with a slight breeze. Aka: a big tease. It didn’t stay that way.

We killed time by jumping around, taking pictures, and meeting Daris from the Biggest Loser. I am a huge Biggest Loser fan, so I was estatic when I saw him. He looked great and I thought it was so inspirational that he was keeping up his fitness level. I wanted to take a picture with him, but I chickened out.

Finally, the gun was shot and we were off.

The first two miles were easy breezy. It was mostly downhill, wind was slight, and we flew by. We both felt strong and ready to go. We completed both miles in a sub-10 min/mile pace. It didn’t take long for Daris to pass us though. He is in the orange socks.

The trail was surrounded by a lot of trees starting out, which was a good shelter from the wind that would later rip us apart.

It was a mostly pretty race. Sure, it got a little boring at times…but there were cows and horses. What more could you want?!

Only in Oklahoma will you see cows and running horses in a half marathon course.

Time went by and trees thinned out causing the wind to pick up. We hardly noticed at this point and kept up a nice 9 to 10 min/mile pace.

Miles 4 and 5 were getting a little rough for me, so I knew it was time to get some fuel. Kacy was nice enough to provide me some Clif Shot Bloks, so those were the fuel of choice. I took two shot bloks at one hour and enjoyed either water or gatorade at every mile. The fuel seemed to do the trick and I started feeling energy coming back.

Miles 5-10 were pretty difficult. The course was advertised as “mostly downhill” but the correct term would be “rolling hills.” With the unexpected hill action and running directly into the wind, it was tough.

At one point, Kacy noticed we were hardly moving with a 14:00 min/mile pace so we finally slowed down and did some walking at mile 9. We felt pretty defeated at that point until we realized the majority of people ahead of us were walking as well. Even the seasoned runners at the end of the race commented on how horrible the windy conditions were. At some point, I just realized that I was hardcore for running in the wind and I secretly liked it.

Mile 10 was when it all changed for me. I got my second wind and experienced something I’ve never felt in a run. All of the pain in my feet, knees and legs disappeared. I began to smile and just ran. I quickly noticed I was running sub 10 min/mile pace and I got excited which only led to feelings of euphoria. I was running at nice paces, and then I’d slow down and wait for Kacy to catch up to me. Poor girl was having all kinds of stomach issues.

There were even a few quick moments where I thought that I would run a full marathon someday.

Around mile 12, we saw Kacy’s dad and stepmom for the first time. It was great to see someone cheering for us. We knew we were getting close so both of us booked it in at this point.

The course ended at the high school football stadium in Ardmore. We kept our eye on the prize and just keep running towards Noble Stadium.

We neared the stadium, feeling like the end was just a few seconds away, when we heard a guy say “just one lap around the track and you’re done!” What?! One more lap.

I was so ready to get it done that I went as fast as I could around the track. Before I knew it, Kacy kicked it into high gear and started to pass me causing me to speed up across the finish line.

We crossed at the exact same time. 2:37:35 which was a PR for Kacy and a PR and PDR for me.

It was such an amazing feeling to finally accomplish something that I always assumed was out of reach for me. I never thought I was a runner and thought I was destined to always struggling to run. I proved myself wrong.

I loved every minute (even the minutes I wanted to quit) of this race and I can’t wait for my next half marathon. I hope to keep improving my speed and just enjoy running.

Who knows, maybe a marathon is in my future?

Thanks to everyone for all the Twitter, Facebook and comment love the past few days. You always make me smile.