13.1 Miles

Last weekend I ran a half marathon. It was awesome! (Actually it sucked, but finishing was awesome!

My goal was to do it under 2 hours, which is 9 minute miles. Good runners start slower, and pick up speed throughout the race, but I hadn't trained doing that so I figured I would just run my steady pace throughout

Now people had warned me that the last three miles are hard, because they are the last three miles, but also because there aren't any downhill parts and told me to pace myself. So I ran the first three miles good, almost 9 minute miles exactly, but then I was feeling pretty good and decided to ignore them and push it harder so I ran the next 7 miles in 8:30 minute miles

And then came those last 3 miles that I had been warned about and I wanted to die. The 11th mile, I ignored it and keep my 9 minute pace, the 12th mile I slowed down, the beginning of the 13th mile, I slowed down a lot.

I lost track of my time and somehow looked at my watch wrong and thought I had already passed 2 hours, so I was sad and lost motivation. Then I saw the big clock and realized I had read my time wrong and there were still a couple minutes left, so I ran as hard as I could the last quarter mile and finished in 1:59.03!

So I accomplished my goal, but I was sad that I slowed down at the end there. Next time I run I will have to learn how to pace myself better.

I brought my MP3 player to keep me entertained and distracted, but didn't think to check the batteries, so it died halfway through the first song and I had to spend the next 2 hours running on my own. Needless to say I did a lot of thinking and meditation.

Overall it really was awesome though, everyone should run one at some point in their lives.