Lake Lowell Half Marathon

I ran in the Lake Lowell Half Marathon and it was quite an experience. My goals were to finish the race, run the entire distance, pass at least one other runner, and finish in under 2 hours.

To sum it up, I did great for the first half of the race, had to hit the bathroom at the halfway mark and thought it was just because I was so well hydrated, but at mile 10 I was actually dehydrated, had heat exhaustion, and my body was just rejecting my efforts to stay nourished and hydrated.

My vision started going blurry and although I kept telling myself that I could walk at the next mile marker I was also telling myself that I only had a 5K left and also kept reminding myself of my 2-hour goal.

By the end of the race I barely staggered across the finish line. I still can't believe my watch clocked my time at 1:59:58 although the official race results gave me a 2:00:05 finish. I am calling it a "met the finish-in-under-2-hours goal" anyway! I would have been a lot better off had the last half mile not been a brutal uphill.

I was sick, I was checked out by EMTs, I stood around for much longer than anticipated waiting to be sure I could walk straight, and tightened up really well because the desire to not pass out won over the desire for some nice long stretches. It was certainly not the grand, cheering, victorious finish I was anticipating, but I am glad I stayed conscious (although not completely coherent) and that I hadn't given in to the caffeine temptation because that would have made my situation much worse. I kept feeling so worried about where the kids were since Paul was there helping me and even though he kept telling me they were okay and "right over there" I still felt anxious that we were loosing track of them just because I wasn't doing great.

I really just wanted to feel fabulous and give them all big hugs and have a big, happy, excited finish and I think I felt anxious about them because they weren't right there with me. Even with my frustrating ending, I DID IT and I have to keep reminding myself of that. If I ever do another one it will be in the middle of the winter, really early in the morning, or I will be walking if my vision starts to go blurry.

I ran the first half of the race with my friend, Liz, who I did some training runs with and she had a finish of 1:51:58. Don't think she's mean for getting ahead, it was the potty break that separated us and we  established the pirate's code for the race before we started. She is amazing! 

To end on a positive note, Matthew is sitting on my lap as I type this post and as he looks at the pictures he is saying "Mommy exercises" and "Mommy WIN!!" That will help a person feel better any day!