Mankato Half Marathon

I have never races 4 races in a month before. Today was race 4, and believe it or not, next weekend I have one more!

Today was the Mankato Half Marathon. This was the 3rd year I’ve run this race. My friend Stacy and I went to the race together and stayed together for all but the last 40 seconds. This race is point to point, so we had to bus to the start. The only problem I have with these type of races is that you are at the start a long time before you start and it is usually chilly! We tried to find a place out of the wind a little and waited for the start.

We started with the 2:10 pace group because Stacy wasn’t sure how fast she could go. It was an easy pace and we stuck with her for about 2 miles and then got a little ahead of her before the 3 mile mark. When we finally got to turn out of the wind, it was much easier. It didn’t hurt that about mile 4 starts a downhill for about 1.5 miles. We strolled along and tried to keep energy for the second half of the race. At about the half way point, we caught the pace group for 2:05. We decided to stay with her until the 9 mile point and that would help us not push too much before the end. We went ahead of her at the water stop and about mile 10, I started to get a little tired. I had Stacy slow up a little because I knew there was a bigger hill coming shortly after mile 11. We went through the local park and climbed the hill and started the final mile.

I was starting to feel the miles at this point and when we turned onto the final road to the finish I told Stacy she could go if she wanted, but I wasn’t going to follow. I watched her, she didn’t get too far ahead, but I couldn’t keep up. I felt good and the clock said exactly 2:03, so I was pleased with that. Of course I immediately started wondering how long it took us to cross the start mat! I found Stacy (who finished a whole 36 seconds before me) and just took a breather.

Official Chip time: 2:00:54

That is simply 1 minute slower than last year, which is not bad if I do say so myself! I do know that I probably shouldn’t have run 16 miles on Monday, but I really don’t feel bad about the 2:00.  If I could change one thing about the race, I wish I could have felt better at the end….maybe next time.

After I got home, I went to empty my water backpack and realized that I hardly drank any of the 20 oz I put in there. That is a clear reason why I petered out at the end. Now I know for next week –  I need to drink more. I wore (and will next week again) my water backpack because Stacy doesn’t stop at water stops. I don’t know how she does it, but she doesn’t drink the whole 13 miles!!

Thank you all for being so supportive!! I truely appreciate it!!