Second and Last Half Marathon

This was the day before. You know, the fun part when you're getting all kinds of "free" stuff (I won't mention what I paid to run in this thing).

The next day it was time to get our run on. My main goals were to beat 2011's time of 2:10:35, and to get out of the middle of the pack. I am always in the middle in any race. I can not be more literal about this than when in Barbados out of the 202 runners who finished, I was 101. I also secretly hoped that I'd get in under 2 hours on this one, but considering I didn't really train, that was unlikely (and - spoiler alert - didn't happen). I was relieved about two things - the humidity was finally down (comparatively speaking) and winds were light - no headwinds.


An enthusiastic group I don't know and a look at the start line.

And we're off.



Here I come...go...



There's Tina & Ron looking good (between mile 4 and 5 there).

All kinds of people crossed the finish line - pushing babies, wearing tutus, dressed in full military gear including backpack, a young kid that finished with a very fast adult time...

Here I am (just under the sign). I had a great 11 or so miles before starting to get pooped with just 2 to go. You'll note those two women in the very front were my nemesis..es..es. They kept walking and then running past me. Walking and then running past me. I had been running the whole time, and felt (in my logic) I should cross first. But noOOOoooo. They started cranking it out in the last 1/2 mile while I was running out of steam and they came in ahead of me. Hrmph. I suppose the competition helped my time though because I did end up beating my Barbados time by about 4 minutes - my official (net) time was 02:06:07, which was an average pace of 9:38 overall (that was my other goal - to never hit 10 or more. Since my slowest pace per my watch was 9:40, I'm satisfied). I was 412th out of over 1,300 runners (19th out of the 80 women in my age group), so finally broke free of the middle (in the right direction). Excellent.


Then it was time to root for Tina & Ron - this was Tina's second and last half also, but Ron's first so we had a virgin in our midst. Go Ron!

You'll note they're crossing at the EXACT same time, and yet the men who were clocking
everyone in decided Ron, the male, was ahead of Tina in the results. Hmrph.

They came in under 3 hours and were happy with that. Of course, it was time to pose afterwards. The other two are friends of Tina/Ron that also ran (much faster than we did). I have to admit we missed our other runner pals/cheering section though - we must get together somewhere you guys (on a 10K, thank you).

We enjoyed some music and some beer afterwards, relieved to be done, before heading back to our place and having to deal with a seemingly very steep set of stairs. Ow.

Now, in addition to it being Ron's first half marathon, it was also his and Tina's 13th wedding anniversary - they wanted to do this because it was their 13th anniversary in 2013 and they were running 13 miles. Congrats!



Great job guys!

Now where's the Advil?