It's official... NEVER F**King Again....NEVER....

It's over, it's done.. Thank the Sweet Baby Jesus.  Today, I finished my 2nd and LAST Half Marathon!  It was absolutely miserable!!  I had that fabulous 10mile run, but then every single run after that was just crap, so my confidence was not at it's highest.  But, I still felt like I could do it.  My goal was to keep my time under 11:00min mile.  Goal - 2:23.   Jullie and I met up and headed to the Metro at 5:00am.  It was freezing cold and raining, but we weren't going to let that stop us.    Lots of people, but I was able to get to the port potties with very little drama and that's always my biggest stressor.  Got to pee right before we start.  But, I didn't need to worry, there were so many people, we actually crossed the start line about 30 minutes after the initial start gun.  In the cold, freezing rain... did I mention it was cold and rainy!

 We were still pretty happy and optimistic... the race hadn't started yet....  Jullie and I ran together, she was going to run with another friend, but her friend backed out at the last minute.  I don't usually like running with anyone, too much pressure.  Am I going too slow and holding them back?  Are they going to be faster than me?  But, we actually ran really well together.  Once or twice either she or I would need to stop, but then we always caught up to each other.  Honestly the first 10 miles were pretty good, despite the non-stop rain. Kept to the less than 11min mile, even with walking 2 water stations and 1 potty break for me.  There was also an HELLACIOUS hill at mile 6.5.  I made it about 3/4 of the way up the hill, but then I had to walk.  I was still okay with that.  The shit got real at mile 10!!!  My back started to really hurt and Jullie's hamstrings and calves were like knotted ropes.  We ended up walk/running the next 1.5 miles, but that was it.  Neither of us could run any more and we ended up walking about the last 1.2 miles.  It was a little discouraging, but honestly, my back hurt so bad I really didn't care.  We just wanted to finish it.  We ran the last .2 miles and crossed the finish so we could at least attempt to look strong. :o)  Finished in 2:35, which is not great, but still better than the first Half I ran, even with all the walking.  Which just tells me, if I was ever able to actually run the whole thing I might do okay, but that's not going to happen.EVER.  The after race sucked even worse.  The snacks were lame... bananas, baked chip samples and some sort of new mint chocolate power bar.  YUCK.  Since I never feel like eating afterwards, it wasn't the end of the world.  But at the AF Half, they had bagels and pizza.  I'm just saying.  Then, we had to wait for 40 MINUTES outside the Metro, in the...you got it... FREEZING WIND AND RAIN...before we could even get down into the Metro to go home.  I was so cold and tired and my back was still hurting.  I began to get really nauseous!  It truly was horrible.

We look happy here, but its a LIE!  We were finally on the metro, but still so cold we could hardly stay in our seat.  I was more sore from all the shaking and shivering than from the running!

 The napping was really good when I got home, that's the best part of racing!!

Plus the "after eating" was pretty good as well or actually the "after eating" plan was good, I didn't really feel much like eating until almost dinnertime.  Basically I didn't finish the race strong and I didn't finish my eating plan strong either!  

I'm glad I did it... sorta... it just confirmed in my mind that I am not a long distance runner!  10 miles is my max. If I had stopped at 10 miles, I would have been perfectly satisfied with my race.  When I look at the calendar and have a 4, 5 or 6 mile run planned... I'm okay with that.  Not a big deal.  But if I look at the calendar and it's 8, 9 or 10 - all of a sudden I "hate" running and I begin to dread the whole thing! So, WHY do it???!!  I'm going to happily stick with my 5K's, 10K's and occasionally a 10 miler when I want a challenge.  Done, Done and Done!