Yesterday, I ran the Carlsbad Half Marathon here in North County San Diego, CA.

Here’s a blow by blow of my race.

The weather was perfect for running, starting out at around 49 degrees and cloudy with a light breeze.

First, I blew my plan to run the first mile in 8 minutes and slowly descend (get faster) from there. Instead, I did a 7:30 first mile, and a 6:30 second mile! I was off to a flying start. My goal time was a 1:39, and I passed the 1:40 pacer, feeling pretty good (but not great- I slept poorly the night before and still had a trace of a cold). I decided that I wanted to get as far ahead of that 1:40 pacer as possible, so that if I died towards the end of the race I could still make my goal time.

So I averaged 7-7:15 minute miles on the next few, far faster than I had planned.

Approaching the halfway point at 6.5 miles, I still felt pretty strong. I downed a packet of Vanilla Bean Gu and was excited to be on the back half of the race.

On mile 7, I noticed a friend in front of me so I picked it up and passed him.

Around mile 8, this tendon behind my knee (poplidius?) began to hurt. It was the exact same place that hurt me the last time I did a half marathon 2 years prior!

I was starting to slow down. Mile 9 was took me 8 minutes. I felt tightness in my right hip and actually stopped and stretched for about 15 seconds. Another 8 minute mile for Mile 10 but I was still plenty ahead of the 1:40 pacer.

Mile 11 began to kind of hurt all over. With my ipod blasting into my ears, I sucked it up and maintained around 7:30-7:45 miles for the final stretch. There was no burst of speed at the end, but I was thrilled to beat my best time by a whopping 4 minutes!!

Strangely, a woman collapsed right in front of me at the finish line- reminiscent of some of the Ironman triathlons shown on NBC over the years. She turned out to be fine but likely dehydrated.

I am excited to get past all my aches and pains with some massage and rest. I’d like to do the La Jolla Half marathon in April, but right now running of any kind doesn’t sound so good. For the next week, in addition to my rehab plan, I’m planning to get back to some swimming and weight lifting that I feel has been sorely lacking from my life in the past 3 months!