A Hilly Half Marathon

I ran my first half marathon. The hogeye in fayetteville, AR. It's really strange to feel a sense of accomplishment after turning in a 2:15 and finishing 148th of 187. I'm proud to say I ran up all of the grueling hills passing people that would later beat me as they walked up them to conserve energy, but if I had walked they still would've beaten me and I wouldn't've felt as good about myself at the end. I'm sore today. Really sore, but I just want to go running some more.

The next part of this post I thought I'd talk about my favorite part at this besides finishing. I really enjoyed listening to the music I could hear coming out of other runners head phones, as I chose to leave my ipod in the car and run with the sound of my allergy wheezed breathing and my footsteps. Through the first 5 miles I was really with the pack and had at least 20 people around me. I began to wonder if they were listening to music (those that were) to keep themselves entertained? to give a rythem? to keep them pumped up? The first person I heard basically all I could hear was a guy riding a high hat. If that was all this guy was listening to I was kinda worried, because that would drive me insane after 2 hours. Next I was interested to hear something from one of my workout mixes that had the Black Eyed Peas "Pump It". There were a few more indistinguishable songs, and then along came "Justin Timberlake" lady. I was tempted to increase my pace or slow down until she passed just to get away. It's not that I don't enjoy sexy back or anything like that, I just didn't want to have this distraction. It kept happening though. I'd pass her... she'd pass me. Over and Over again.

Oddly enough though, even with all the music, I didn't feel like I had that much trouble. The toughest time I had was miles 3-6 I think. If you are unfamiliar with the Hogeye, The course has about 4 challenging hills in the first 6.55 miles. You start at the top of the town square on a hill and you have run down two slopes that are about 1/4 mile distance in the first mile. After that you are faced with a gentle climb over the next half mile and then it's equal descent. And before you have finished that 2nd mile in the course you are back up another hill with a steep climb and back down it's descent again. After that it's relatively flat until the hill right before the turn around. Once I made the turnaround the race was a breeze (aided by the porta potty in the construction site - All that water has to go someplace). The race was even easier after the 10 mile mark when I only had a 5k left. Mentally I was definately in the right place even if physically I have some conditioning and some speedwork left to do.

Once I passed the 9 mile mark it was exhilerating to know that every step I took, gave me a further distance than I had ever run continuously before. I really wanna go run today even though my legs would hate me for it.