Lake George Half Marathon

I woke up late and stepped on cat vomit on my way to the shower. I rushed around to get ready and ended up forgetting my fuel belt. My boys were getting on my last nerve, fighting over who got to sit in the car seat with the square buckle. The race was 45 minutes away and I was stressed about making it on time. I arrived visibly flustered with barely enough time to pin on my race number. I quickly headed to the start line, hoping to stop at the port-a-potty, but the line was ridiculously long. That's about the time I started to regret that bottle of water I drank on the way there. I guess I'm going to have to hold it for 13.1 miles - awesome! For those of you that don't know me very well, that was a very sarcastic awesome with a giant F-bomb in front of it. So I'm standing at the start line, freezing my ass off, surrounded by gravel due to some road construction, when everyone starts running. What happened to shooting a gun off to let everyone know hey the race is starting now? So I had a rough morning, which really threw me off, but once I started running, everything just clicked. I forgot about all the BS and just focused on my running. I ran a steady pace, making sure to keep it around 8 minute miles. For the whole first half of the race, I felt like I was gliding, gradually passing runner after runner, just listening to my music and taking it one mile at a time. I skipped every aid station because I lack the basic skills required to drink water from a cup while running. Usually, I just spill it all over myself so I figured it was a waste of time. I did have a couple strawberry banana energy gels shoved in my waistband that I took around miles 5 and 10 though. It was an out and back course, which I love for 2 reasons: (1) I can count how many people are ahead of me at the turn around, which was about 50 and (2) I can look for my team members on the way back. A simple smile, a wave, or a thumbs up does wonders for my motivation and hopefully for theirs as well. My legs were getting tired on the way back and the hills seemed monstrous. I swear each one was bigger than the last. I think miles 8-11 were the most difficult for me. It was definitely a challenging course, but I was on a mission. Originally, I just wanted to come in under 2 hours, but I knew I could do better than that so I told my family to look for me around 1 hour and 45 minutes into the race. My estimate was pretty close because I ended up crossing the finish line with a time of 1:45:56, about 19 minutes faster than the previous year. I was 54th place overall and 7th place for my age group. I was more than happy with my performance. The race was timed with the chips that you have to tie on your shoes. I absolutely hate them! The last thing I want to do after running a race is bend over and untie my shoe to get that thing off. This time was especially difficult because my hands were frozen and my fingers would not function properly no matter how much my brain told them to. After I finally got it off, I went straight to my boys for post race hugs. I am so grateful to have family and friends willing to get up early on a cold and windy Sunday to support me! I always look forward to seeing my kids' faces at the finish line cheering me on. They motivate me to keep pushing and to finish strong.