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2017 Humana Rock N Roll Half Marathon

July 16, 2017 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: Low 70s

Comments:
Well today I raced my first half marathon ever. My goal going in was to break 1 hour and 20 minutes and I was able to do that! I'm super pumped about it! I'm gonna do a BJ-styled race break down.

Premise: Wes and I woke up at 4:30am for the Half Marathon. We took a shuttle near the start of the course and walked the rest of the way. We went to the bathroom and then went our separate ways and did out own warmups. I warmed up a little 1.5 because I didn't want to overdue it too much. I then had to wait for the bathroom again, so I didn't really have time to do warmup drills and a lot of stretching (I stretched alittle). It was like 6:15am at the point and I got into my coral at 6:20. I started right behind the eventual female champion (she won in 1:13 later on and was actually a world cross country finisher twice RIP). As 6:30am started to get closer, I wasn't nervous i just got more and more pumped.

Mile 1: The gun went off and I did the best I could to contain myself. I was really taking in all of the scenery and thought it was cool that we got to go under the bridge. I stayed not too far behind Wes, but realized that i was going a bit fast. I went through around 5:44, which was kind of an L but at the time it felt super easy.

Mile 2-5: Somewhere in mile 2, I was running 2 other guys. One of the guys was a club runner for Purdue. He was a hilarious guy, he was running under his girlfriend's name. We talked during the race for probably the next 3 miles. It kind of helped me contain the pace a little bit better. Wes got farther ahead and was going with the eventual 2nd place female finisher. This was definitely the most fun part of the race. We shared some NIRCA stories (apparently he knows Charlotte lmao) and had a grand old time. My 3 mile split was somewhere in the 17:30s and the 5 mile split was 29:36.

Mile 6-9: I think around mile 6, I dropped the Purdue (he told me to go ahead but passed me in the last 1.5 miles anyways lol) and I went on with another dude who I didn't talk to. After mile 6, I started using all of the water stations. It was initially a challenge because I'm uncoordinated as fuck lol. At one point I knocked over 2 in a row before I could properly grab a cup. I made a lot of volunteers pretty wet and sometimes I'd barely get any water because I couldn't get a proper grab rip. I did this at every water station until the end. I drank a little water, ran through some fire hydrants, and doused myself a bit. I wasn't feeling too bad over here, but I started to feel some soreness in my thighs and hips. I was still keeping a sub 6 pace, so that was at least good. And basically from 10k on up, I set PRs considering I've never raced that distance before lol. I also started being able to see Wes again around mile 7 or 8 but he was probably a minute ahead.

Mile 10-12: I came through mile 10 somewhere between 59:30 and 59:40. I was pumped because I never thought I could break 60 in the 10 mile. But after the 10 mile, the last 3 miles were pure hell. I slowly started to shut down and my legs were feeling like lead. The slight heat was starting to get to me and every mile was feeling longer and longer.

Mile 13 and 0.1: The last mile was the hardest final mile of a race i've had to do. My feet started to head and my legs felt like absolute led. According to my phone, my last mile was 6:27 which felt alot slower than it actually was. The Purdue kid passed me and tried to get me to go with him, but I couldn't. I made a few surges but my gas tank was on low. The last 0.75 or 0.8 was an entire straight away. I saw Wes, so I just focused on trying to catch back to him. I wanted to kick, but could only manage the surge and slow method. Eventually in the last 300, I did catch him, but I couldn't kick anymore. I basically jogged it into the finish and Wes finished 4 or 5 seconds ahead. But I was super pumped that 1:19 was on the clock and my first half marathon was over.

After the race, I was a bit dizzy and had to sit down for a bit. I wasn't able to run a cool down because my legs were absolutely dead. After I chugged a Gatorade and a chocolate milk, I slowly came back to life. I managed to get some good pics, listen to music, and have a good time.

Overall, it was honestly one of the most fun races I've ever done. I'm super happy with my time and I'd say the experience was very worth it. I'm gonna have to take it easy this week, because i think I'm gonna be pretty sore, but ya know I'd say it was worth it. I guess the only other thing I have to say is.... ROCKKKK ONNNN!