Arlington Woman's Half Marathon -Run With Heart

Yesterday I ran another half marathon as part of my marathon training schedule.  I had registered for this one a while back to run with my cousin Silvia from San Angelo.  I was really supposed to run 12 as part of my taper run, but one more mile wasn't going to hurt me.  Besides, Silvia has been using the training schedule I created for her and wanted to be there for her.  She hadn't ran in a while and was nervous about how she would do.  She's currently training for her first full marathon.  The Fort Worth Cowtown Marathon in February.  She's going to run it with my other cousin, Homer who is also using my same training schedule.  They have both been doing great with sticking to their runs.  

I may register to run the half marathon and then go cheer them on.

It was perfect weather in the high 30's and clear skies.  I ate sushi with my boy last night and hoped it gave me the energy for the run.  I saw a couple of friends I haven't seen before and it nice to catch up before and after race.  One of them mentioned that it was going to be a hilly course.  That scared Silvia and said she hasn't ran any hills.  I told her not to worry about it and gave her some tips on how to tackle them.  She didn't want me to pace her because she didn't want to slow me down.  I didn't want to make her more nervous and decided to run my own race.  I gave her lots of support and told her I would see her at the finish line.

We ran two loops of the same course to make 13.1 miles.  We started at Lamar High School and went through some hilly neighborhoods.  The very last mile had a crazy, steep hill.  I felt like I was crawling up that thing!  My right hamstring was screaming at me, but decided not to stop because I knew it would cramp up and it would be harder to keep going.  I just made myself slow down and that seemed to work.  I passed the two guys who were the 1:40 pacers and felt pretty good.  My goal was to do better than my last half marathon race in Fredericksburg, Austin (1:40:14).  However, they ended up catching up to me and passing me the last mile.  A man told me to keep going straight instead of turning towards the finish line and that cost me some seconds because I had to turn around when other guys told me to go back!  I was so pissed and might of said the "F" word.  I was exhausted from that crazy hill and I just wanted to finish strong.  

I ended up finishing in 1:39:52 and beat my time from last race!  Out of 403 females I came in 8th place overall.  I also placed 1st in my age group!!  I didn't expect that one.  Overall very happy with my results and happy I finished injury free.  Super proud of Silvia for she finished and conquered those hills on her own.  She said she did a lot of talking to herself to get through them.  I told her yes I do that all the time and it's a mind game most of time.  You just gotta stay positive and tell yourself you can do this!  My next race is the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa, Oklahoma next weekend.  I'm ready for it!  Keep on running!!