Long Island Half (PR Included!)

Pre-race car shot!

You know what's better than running your 8th half marathon?  PRing without even expecting it!  I went into yesterday's race with low expectations.  I only had one10 miler under my belt, it's early in the season and my focus is more on the Brooklyn Half.  After my hill run on Wednesday I knew that I would kill this race, but I had no idea it would feel so effortless (as effortless as 13.1 can feel...).  I'm totally amazed...oh and my time was 2:10:07.

So to start off I saw the boy Sat (don't judge) and didn't really sleep too well, which is weird for me as I NEVER have night-before-race-shit-sleep.  But anyhoo, I woke up at 5, tried to meditate (err, poop, lol) checked the weather and had oatmeal.  I never do this, I like to give myself as much sleep as possible but my stomach was weird during 2 of my runs last week so I wanted to try and take care of biz...

Oldest friend ever Ray got to my house at 6, we picked up Running Partner Andrea and headed over to the start, chilled at the car, talked to some friends who were running then made our way over to the start which was probably a mile or so walk (we parked at the finish) waited on a huge porta-potty line with our friend Tara (from the Biggest Loser, love her!) who was taking pics with fans and kissing babies - it was great.  Next thing I knew the gun went off and we were off - literally.  I wasn't even in a coral but at the end of the day it didn't matter, thank god for start mats! I haven't ran a non-NYRR race in ages so I always forget how different the coral situation is - loosey goosey compared to crazy NYRR crowd control.  It all worked out as I was perfectly placed and didn't encounter too many walkers and everyone was running about a 9:30 pace.

The miles were all a blur, nothing too spectacular on the course, in fact it was pretty boring.  We did get a chance to run through some towns I never go to so that was fun, but otherwise the course is not too exciting.  At the 10 mile mark I had a feeling a PR was in the works, I knew stopping was not an option. Past races I have fallen apart around mile 11, not this time, I breezed through 10-13 like it was my job...I knew when I hit the finish that I had PRd so I naturally got a little weepy.  That damn finish line always makes me so sentimental!

I grabbed my medal tried to squeeze through the bottleneck of people to get back to my car to meet Ray who finished in 1:46 and Andrea who ended up in the medical tent...silly girl ran the race with a fever.  I'm happy to report she's fine, but friends, don't run while feverish! 

Overall it was a great day!  I know I shouldn't get too cocky, but I feel fairly confident in saying that  I can expect some good things this season based on the outcome of this race.  To PR so early on was definitely not expected but shows that I'm a much stronger runner.  Of course I totally thank the Hills for that, plus I'm really determined to crush my marathon time this year in Chicago, so I'm doing the work and getting things done!