San Diego Holiday Half

So for the past 6 months I have been training for the San Diego Half Marathon. There were so many times I never thought I'd make it. 13.1 miles is a long way. I've had the most inspirational 'coach' and running partner for this entire journey and I seriously could never have done this without her! A few things that I did learn... races can start late. The race time was 7:30 and they had us line up in the wrong spot, so we all had to shift to the correct place. Obviously prolonging the start time by at least an hour. I had drank my amino energy with the anticipation of the 7:30 start time- next time I'll take that drink right down to the start line and finish before we run! Also, I didn't take a bottle of water. I figured just drink on the route- not a good idea or train with less water. Eat more the day before and eat about 300 calories prior to the race. I had a side ache throughout a lot of the race and that was not fun! Also, I need more hill training but that will come with time. The race was not my best run day but I finished- 2:34 and my garmin tracked us at 13.25 miles. So we were pretty much on track for our 2:30 goal. Definitely did more walking than expected but overall I'm happy. Funny thing is, 2 weeks prior to this race we ran 13.1 miles in 2:35. That run I was much stronger but Dara had a tough run. It's nice when one of us is on and the other is off but it would be even better if we could both be 'on' for race day... Next up is possibly Surf City in a few weeks!