Half Marathon Number 11 Done! And what's next?

OKC Memorial Marathon is near and dear to me.  There are many reason why I cherish this race, first off Oklahoma City has been my new home for about 2.5 years, this was the third time running this race and the only race that I have ran more than once, and lastly because this race is to remember and celebrate the lives lost in the bombing on April 19, 1995.  With any race you want to do well but with this being my (new) home town I wanted to make my city proud.  This year I decided to dedicate this race to the 168 lives that was lost.  I wanted to run for those that can't because they aren't with us anymore.

The weekend of the race I decided to run a 10K in Tulsa as a warm up.  Unfortunately due to weather it was cancelled but it was probably a good thing because of the amazing run I will have the next day.  The night before the race I met some amazing runners from IG at a local restaurant called Zio's.   It was a great night of conversations and getting to know each other.  After that night it made me want to run a marathon even more.  But I know that if I take that next step into the marathon territory I will need to up my training.  

The today of the race came and a lot of emotion was going through me.  I was excited to be able to run this race again since last year I was living in Kansas and couldn't make it back for the run.  I was also nervous because the last half marathon that I completed in March was the worst performance in my running "career."  I went into this run not expecting to do well.  I wanted to run and enjoy the race, since most the time I am chasing my PR.  

The race started a little slow for me and probably almost every runner that morning.  There were 16,753 runners on the course so it was a little hard to get a good pace going during the first couple of miles.  After mile two I was able to break away a little and get a good pace going.  I use Runkeeper and it gives me updates every 5 minutes and I started to realize I was running an 11 minute pace, which is pretty fast for me theses days.  I didn't want to waste my good pace so I kept with it.  The first five miles went by really fast without much problem.  Just after mile five I started to get hungry and when I get hungry I hate running.  I started to eat my chia bar.  Through the next two miles it was a little tough because it was hard to eat for some reason.  I wasn't able to get the food down into my stomach fast enough so it would stop talking.  I got through those two miles and was heading to Classen, which is a long street that is from about mile 7.5 to about mile 10.  This was a little hard because when you make the turn to Classen the wind was hitting us from the South.  It is tough to run when something is coming the other direction.  I kept going because I wanted to make it to mile 10 before walking.  I kept reminding myself that this is for the 168 people that lost their lives.  It definitely helped a lot and just seeing all the wonderful people on the course and the volunteers that were in the cold with us make me keep going.  I finally made it to mile 10.3 before walking and I hit that mark at 1 hour and 55 minutes.  This was better than my fastest 10 miles this year.  I was really happy about that.  I took a minute or so and walked to catch my breath.  I started to make the calculations and figured out that I am on pace to finish under 2 hours and 30 minutes.  This has been my goal since I took two years off of running races.  Mile 11 I saw the 2:30 pacer but wasn't able to keep up.  The last mile was really tough for me because of the last hill.  I did my best but like every OKC Memorial Race that I have participated the last part of the run from 13th street to about 8 street is a long stretch.  I did my best and even though I didn't make it under 2:30 I did make it under 2:32 and cut almost 7 minutes from my faster half marathon this year.  I was thrilled about.  I still have about 13 minutes to cut in order to hit my PR but I am making progress.  Below you can see my progression through the race.  

I am just thankful to be able to participate in this race and I can't thank the volunteers enough for spending their early Sunday morning with us and cheering us on until the end.  Remember that no matter what you are going through you are lucky to be able to wake up each and every day.  Tomorrow is never guaranteed.

What's Next?

Well as of right now I have six more half marathon this year and several smaller races.  The half marathons I will be participating are the Joplin Memorial Run, Wounded Warrior Half, Chicago Rock n Roll, The Mother Run, Kansas City Half, and the Route 66 Tulsa Run.  I'm excited to be participating in all these races.  I also did a crazy thing this week and submitted my ballot for the London Marathon.  I will know in mid October if I am accepted.  If I am this will be my first marathon and what a great marathon to participate.  If not I will continue running half marathons and take more time to train for a full.  Good luck to everyone who has submitted their ballot.  Until next time.  Thanks for reading.