Another Half Under the Belt

My marathon training plan called for a half marathon this past weekend. So being the obedient little minion I am, I looked for a race. There was one here in Arizona and one in southern California. I took one look at the course map for the one on Coronado and it was a no brainer. The Silver Strand Half Marathon is 13.1 miles of beauty. Pretty much the whole race you can see water. It was described as "flat and fast". It also meant a good excuse to head to CA for the weekend. We invited Ronnie's mom, brothers, and brother's girlfriend along for the trip and made a fun weekend of it.

The race went well. My main goal was to set a PR. This was the first half I've done that I actually trained for, so it was going to be a good indication of what kind of improvement I had made and what I could do if I was actually running before doing one. I ended up beating my last half PR by 10 minutes with a finishing time of 1:41, which is a 7:45 pace…way better than I anticipated. It wasn't totally comfortable at the end, but hey, no pain no gain, right?

Perhaps my favorite thing about this race (better than a PR, beautiful weather, family spectators and incredible scenery), was the way the day started. Mckenna happened to wake up early (thank you time zone differences), about 5 minutes before my 4:30am alarm went off. So I got her out of bed and let her go through my pre-race routine with me. We ate a bagel with peanut butter together, took a shower together, drank gatorade, got all geared up, and headed off to the race. She thought it was pretty cool to help mommy get ready for my race. It made me smile thinking about years from now, possibly getting ready for a race we would run together, just like my mom and I do. How soon can she start that it's not child abuse? Ha!

Here are some pictures from race day:
                                                

The view driving to the start line…full moon, a harbor, and sailboats…PERFECTION

I really liked the view

We all look sleepy. Mckenna looks thrilled to be there…NOT!

"Where'd mommy's race go?" Mckenna kept asking. She didn't quite get that the race stretched as far as she could see…and then some.

The stats

Apparently mile 4 didn't feel as good as the rest

More numbers for fellow running nerds

About 5ft from the finish line

Mckenna enjoyed all the post-race food and drinks (apple juice in hand in this picture). I'm sure there's a rule against that…don't rat me out!

Races are tiring. Right, Mckenna? Hey, it was an early morning for her too.

It was a great weekend, a great day, and a great race!