Divas Half Marathon Race Recap

After my last half marathon, the only thing I wanted was one of those giant grape pixie sticks. After telling Michael this, I received a box of 50 giant pixie sticks in the mail Saturday for my half marathon this weekend. How sweet is he?? 

Those things are like crack candy! (Well what I've read about it's addictive-ness at least!) Soooo delicious and perfect for post race fuel since they are simple, fast digesting sugars. 

So...the race recap...

Overall, I enjoyed the race. In Myrtle Beach, it was warm yesterday! At start time, it was just chilly enough to require some sort of throw-a-way long sleeve but because I'm a complete weirdo, I run all of my races in long sleeves so I was good to go from the start. I needed something pink for this Diva's/everything pink-themed race, so I tested out a pair of pink, Nike compression shorts last week at practice to see if they would be doable for the 13.1 mile race. I felt fine in them during my run on Tuesday, so those were in. I also wore my first pair of compression calf sleeves during my practice on Thursday and liked those as well. I'm not sure if they actually keep your legs from being tired, or if that's more of a placebo effect, but I like the way they look and feel so I wore those on Sunday as well.

Normally, I refuse to wear shorts while running, so the longer compression shorts coupled with the calf sleeves was a good substitute for this race that would have been way too hot for pants.

Without Limits Team

Without Limits had a pretty big group of girls running the half marathon this weekend, and one running the 5k. As a whole, we did really great with a few PR's and a couple extra age-group medals. Personally, my race was okay. After the Lifeguard Certification Course I took Friday and Saturday, my legs were tired from eight hours in a freezing pool. So, despite having what I felt, was actually my best week of practice last Tuesday and Thursday, I was already feeling my legs in mile two during the race. That was pretty discouraging and frustrating.

I ended up getting my first seven miles done around an hour and ten minutes and if I could have kept up that pace, I would have done AWESOME. However, that was probably a little too fast for me to start out at, and with the fatigue I was feeling early on, I should have slowed myself a bit. It's so hard to not push yourself when you're feeling good. I kept my run to walk ratio of 9 minutes running to 1 minute walking for the entire race. I definitely, however, had a much slower back half. Overall, my pace for the entire race ended up being 11:09 per mile with a 2:26:17 finish. This was faster than the Quintiles Half I ran about a month ago, so I have to be happy about it, even though I know I could have done better. Bitter sweet...

The atmosphere of this race was fun, however I was not happy with the way the end was set up. They gave us boas and tiaras to carry with still a half mile out. Since these items are fun and give the race it's own special personality, I loved them. However, in my opinion I would have liked these items much closer to the finish line, or even after. I also have to gripe a little about the setup after we went through the finish line. There were actual line barriers set up, similar to that which you'd see on Black Friday to direct a long line, and technically, you were unable to get out of these. With it being around 70 degrees, and having just finished 13.1 miles, the last thing I wanted to do was be constricted in a line, squished by a ton of other hot, sweaty people and be forced to walk through this in order to get my photo taken or get to the post-race food. After about 5 minutes of getting to the point where I thought I was going to have a panic attack, I ended up sneaking out of the line because I was feeling extremely overheated and claustrophobic. 

When I tried to enter the line again to get to the bananas, one of the race helpers didn't want to let me and a few other girls get back through. How can you deprive someone who just ran 13 miles in that kind of heat, from food and water? As a fitness professional, that was a huge no-no in my book.

Myself and friend/Without Limits team member, Lauren

Other than some of the finish line issues, I really enjoyed the race. I am disappointed because I know my time could have been much better if I hadn't been so tired going into it, but I am happy I did it and happy I finished! And the medals! They don't get much cuter than that!

My friend Pam, showing off her medals!