{Shamrock Half Marathon}

Truthfully, I had no expectations for this year’s Shamrock Half. I signed up on a whim last December, because I’d ran this race for the past 3 years and I wanted to make sure I got in before the half filled up. What I didn’t do was train properly. I’ve also had recurring IT band issues for a while now. But I’m not here to make excuses for this year’s finish time…

I had started to get a bit anxious for the impending race, but I really didn’t let it bother me too much. Something I’ve learned since becoming part of the “real world” is that I have far greater things that consume my mind than how far I want to run when I get home from work. It’s bittersweet, actually. I miss those days of making my schedule around my workout routine, but I also love my job and feel a sense of accomplishment from working! Anyways, since I was busy with work, and had recently gotten back from a business trip to California…I kind of let the race slip up on me. I had been running, just not as many miles as I had in the past with half marathon training! I even did a few “long” runs of 10 and 12 miles over the past month or so.

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On race morning, I woke up to a feeling of cautiousness and also optimism. I was afraid I’d struggle, given my IT band issues over the past months…but I was also optimistic that I could pull it off. The weather was ideal, in the 50s and overcast…in my opinion, perfect running weather. After a bit of a rush to the start line, we were sent off and I started out with a decently comfortable 8:15 pace. I kept this up for the first 7 or 8 miles, and I was hoping for a finish under 1:50. Suddenly, a little after mile 8, I felt like I was hit with a ton of bricks. My IT band started hurting, which caused my stride to shorten pretty badly, and I felt like I was just limping along truthfully. It didn’t help that I also started to feel nauseated and for some reason, had blisters from my shoes. It was like the perfect storm of ruining my hopes of finishing under 1:50. My new goal became to finish in under 2 hours. I was kind of disappointed, but I really just wanted to finish the race! As I neared mile 11, I was seriously not feeling it. I had to stop and stretch quickly, and I got back on the course to finish out the last 2 miles. I then decided that my goal was to finish…okay, I couldn’t give up the goal thing completely, so it became an “under 2:05” goal.

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As I made the turn onto the boardwalk at the Oceanfront, I gave it all the strength I had and picked up the pace to get to the finish line. It’s so deceiving because you can see the finish from what seems like so far away and it seems like it takes forever to get there! I really picked my pace up here, though, and it felt good…I think because I knew that it was almost over and I could finally take a break! I crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 2 minutes – which I’ve come to terms with and I still feel accomplished, despite it not being my best time…in fact, almost 20 minutes longer than last year’s PR at the Shamrock Half. You win some, you lose some. I remember thinking last year “hmm…now what? I’ve PR’d every year and this year was my best at 1:43…how am I going to feel when I don’t beat my previous year’s PR?” and now I know that feeling. I can honestly say that I still feel accomplished and proud that I was able to go out there again and run 13.1. And now I get to find another race to get some redemption for my 2:02 finish time. But maybe I should let myself heal first this time…? 😉

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