Wildlife Marathon

Last Sunday I ran in the Wildlife 1/2 Marathon.  My goal going into this race was to get a 1:50.  The night before the race I went to the packet pick up and promoted MARATHON Protien Bars.  I handed out 66 bars and talked with countless people that night.  What I liked best was describing the marathon course.  I have ran down almost all the roads and if not I have drove  down them!

The morning of the race comes and it is a cool morning that promised to be an awesome day.  I did a short 1/2 mile jog to just warm up the muscles a little.  Went to the bathroom countless times and mingled with the crowd.  Got some compliments on my MARATHON Bar uniform, it does stand out!  Right before the start of the full marathon I met my MARATHON Bar teammate Melanie Peters who would ultimately end of winning the womens marathon and finish 3rd overall.

So now it is time for the 1/2 to start and I get in the front of the pack so I have less people to manuver around.  I go out at a 8 minute pace for my first mile, oops wanted to hover around 8:30.  So my next mile is on pace and I feel great.  I get to the road I live on and there is Robyn Halsey cheering for me.  It was nice to have someone there since my family was less than 400 feet away and sleeping.  I get to the Teft Rd crossing and their is Robin Ellison cheering for me.  There was quite a crowd here and lots of SAU kids handing out gatoraide and water.  I am feeling great I head to the turn around and there are more SAU students and the ygive me a small bottle of water and I tell them SAU is my Alma Mater and I ran there 25 years ago.  They thought that was keen!  So off i go back down the trail towards Concord.  I am still feeling good.

So I am finally at the end of the trail and take in a little more water before treading on to the finish.  I head up the turn and short hill and decide to walk up the hill a little bit.  I look at my watch and I say to myself I will still get 1:50 I know i will.  So I conserved a little energy there and took off halfway up the hill and kicked it in for a strong finish with less than a mile left.  I cross the finish line in 1:50:57!  Woot Woot!  Made my goal!

I still felt good after the run as well.  I really did feel good all through the race, my hips did get a little tight and sore about mile 10-11 but they always do by then.  All in all it was a great race, great weather and great time!  I made my goal and now I need to move onto my next goal.  I just have to figure what that is going to be.