We debated for a couple of weeks whether we would/should/could do this and finally came to the conclusion that if the day came and we weren't feeling it we could always back out. Ha!! I had told too many people about this race and backing out was not an option.
Pre-race
I couldn't sleep and ended up with probably 4 hours of restless sleep before having to get up bright and early at 5 a.m. I went into this run with no expectations of doing well, I just wanted to finish:). We arrived and walked approximately a half a mile to the start line, this is so much smaller than the Mini (35,000 at the mini not quite 3000 at this race.) The time started promptly at 7:00 and right off we are headed uphill.
At mile 1 we were running our pace that we started the mini at and felt really good. I checked again at mile 3 and somehow through the hills we were still keeping our flat course pace on these crazy hills. (There was basically no running between the mini and today so as I said before NO delusions of doing well.) When we reached the halfway point I checked our pace again, yep, still keeping up with the Joneses. At this point I mentioned to Stephanie that it was possible that we were going to be close to our mini time (which was a PR for both of us).
Mile 11.5
The rain came and I must say I've never been happier to see or feel rain! It was so humid and hot this morning I felt like it was raining before the rain started. It rained for about a mile and that gave me a little rejuvenation. Stephanie took off at mile 12 but I wasn't quite ready, at about 12.5 I upped my game and hightailed it the last half mile. I finished a half marathon made up entirely of hills in 30 seconds longer than it took me to finish a flat course!!
Question:
Does this mean that I didn't give my all at the Mini in May, or that I just had a really great run day today?