Last Half Marathon of the Year!

On Sunday, November 24, I ran my last half marathon for the year at the Fall Classic Half Marathon in Strongsville, Ohio. I have been training for this and I was ready to beat my PR (personal record). 

So the night before I ate spaghetti, water for dinner and for a snack I ate some carrots and a gorilla bar.  I layer out my outfit before bed. It was my new running hat, gloves, my buffer to cute the wind on my face, a  purple wicket t-shit, Nike arm warmers, and a long sleeve wicket 3/4 zipper, the outside layer of my  new Columbia Jacket( used as a rain Jacket to cut the wind and snow), underarmed tights, black running shorts, socks, gu  (I could not find Power Gel when picking up my packet) and my bib number 231!  I had a great night sleep from 11:30 p.m.  to 6 o’clock. For breakfast I drank Sunny D,  Apple Juice and had some Frosted Flacks and a banana. After eating I checked the weather app on iphone ( I use for an iPod) to see what the weather is going to be like at 9 am when the race starts. The weather app called for snow. I was nervous about running in the snow. But when my Uncle Jim and I  arrived to the race site at the Bonnie Park Cleveland Metro parks their was not a drop of snow on the ground. We had to walk a mile  from the RTA parking lot to the start line. My Uncle did great. I Just saying! 

The race was on a cloudy day with the temperature that was the chill 20 degree with the wind 20 mph with no snow!  After stretching and going to the restroom. Then they told everyone to line up at  the start line I  was a little nerves, but I was ready, because the last two runs, I ran that that pace I wanted to run at this race and I did great. As I line up towards the back of the rows and start my iPod  with Nike run app and put my ear buds to my ear. I hear the Alicia Keys song “ Girl on fire” It is a in powering song and  it fired me up. I got my watch ready to use the stop watch mode and pushed the start as I crossed over the track pad at the start line, because my time does not start until I cross the track pad. Keeping track of my time helps me stay on target with my goal time.The course was smooth, flat and fast. At one of the water stations a gorilla even passed out  ice water. Around mile 6, I was going to pass my Uncle Jim some cloths or my Gu trash.  I told him, around an hours I should be at mile six. Well, I was on my A game and I was ahead of my target time. So as I come up to my Uncle Jim  around mile 6, he is holding his iPhone ready to take a photo. As I snuck up on Uncle Jim at mile six,  I gave my him a high five as I was running, He smiles and high fives me! I was feeling great around mile 6 and ready!

It was the first time I ran in this cold of weather because I have been running in 32 degrees weathers. 

But I have been training for this. My goal was to beat my Akron Marathon time of 2:14:45. So I used a pacer band and my old stop watch to make sure I was on pace for my goal time of 2:14:00. I stopped the watch on accident and did not notice, so I was not able to keep pace, so then I  was thinking how I can work around it and figured I started at 9 a.m. and calculated in my brain where I should be at every mile  the sync  it with my  pace band. And it worked! I rocked it! I beat my goal time and I crossed the finish line at 2:13:48 and I was 26 in my age group 30 to 34!

This was the first half marathon I felt good the whole race, I mainly focused only my breathing and checked my form through out the race. I was feeling good till the last mile. Then I was thinking to myself, “Dud that is just one lap around the the block when I am training, I got this in the bag. Just keep on running!” I did! 

After the race volunteers passed out  hot chocolate, cookies and other yummy food for the racers. I really enjoyed it and it was not that hard to run in the cold as I thought it was going to be.

 O ya! I realized I forgot my SLR camera as we are walking to the start line of the race. That is not a good thing for me! So I had to take photos  when I got home with my SLR! :( 

Wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy it with your friend and family, while eating yummy turkey and mash potatoes!

Photo credit: Jessica Genevish