Ok so maybe I can get another PR...

I have to submit a retraction to my last post when I said that I couldn't possibly beat my Tom King Half Marathon PR. I ran the Country Music Half on Saturday and beat my time by 2 minutes! SWEET!

I didn't get to bed until after 1am on Friday night and then had to get up at 4:45 to get dressed, eat, and down to LP Field to catch the shuttle to the start line. It was 5:45 when I got to the parking lot at LP Field and it was raining...no...it was pouring. To most people that would be a disaster but to me it was perfect running weather. Beautifully outfitted in my shiny black garbage bag I jumped on one of the city buses that took us to the start line...oddly enough that was my very first ride on a Nashville city bus in the almost ten years I've lived here. I hopped off the bus and made my way towards the front of Centennial Park. I took a stop at the Port A Johns...luckily before they had the chance to get too nasty. For the next 45 minutes or so I just sat on the wall near the McDonald's which was right next to my corral...#12. It was a great people watching area. It is amazing what some people wear to do marathons or half marathons. When they get up in the morning and put on jean shorts do they really think that there won't be massive amounts of chaffing?! ugh. I had one guy try to make small talk with me but I could decipher only about 30% of what he was saying to me. And you ask, "what country was he from?"....oh...he's from Tennesse...Shelbyville, TN. When he says "Shelbyville" it sounds more like "sheb-vl." You can see my confusion.

The race started at 7 but I didn't cross the start line until 7:25 becuase of the wave start which starts each corral about 2 minutes apart so the course doesn't get so congested. Hey New York City Marathon...you can learn a little something from Nashville...get a wave start! Once I started I knew I was going to have a good day. I can't say that my legs felt perfect but I felt good enough to really push myself. I have run the streets of this course hundreds of times so I knew the right places to really push myself so I wouldn't lose time and the areas to use the hills to my advantage. I figure if I have to carry 170 pounds around I might as well use my body mass as an advantage on the downhills. Once I got to mile 11 I checked my watch and it was around 1:37. With two miles to go I was right on target to match my Tom King time if I did 10 minute miles. I was doing 8:35-8:45 so I knew the PR was in my reach. At mile 12 near Municiple Auditorium I hauled it up the hills and then coasted over and down the Woodland Street bridge to the finish line. I crossed at 1:54:15 and then almost threw up! Yeah! I held it together though and it was worth every second! I actually ran the 5K in a time faster than I did in high school cross country...27:46...that's kind of amazing to me. Out of 21,398 total half marathoners I was number 3015. I was 920 out of 13,477 females and I was 239th in my age group which had 2950 people in it. Not bad odds at all...

All that to say I had a really good day. It's so awesome to see all of this training paying off. I never considered myself a good runner but I think I can proudly hold that title now. Coach Kathleen said to me last year at Tom King..."don't be afraid to run fast"...and that has stuck with me every time that I run. I was a vey timid runner in the past; afraid of what might happen if I actually push myself. The stupid thing is that if you push yourself and you can't hold it then you obviously just slow down. What's the big deal about that? I can't wait to see what happens at the Georgia Half Ironman...the Athena is coming and she's getting faster everyday!