Women's Half Marathon-Scottsdale to Tempe 2011

Rock star finishers!

This update is a little late--the race was almost a week ago, but the race was great and I was happy overall.  I was super excited to have my friend, Danie, down in AZ visiting to run this race with me!!  She is a fantastic runner (even though she's only just picked it up again this year after about 15 years off!).  I knew she would motivate me to keep moving.  And, we definitely kept moving.

It was a cool morning (alright--it was cold--even for Minnesotans).  Once the sun came up, it felt a bit better.  It was perfect weather for running in my opinion.  We started towards the back of the pack in corral 5.  Unfortunately, there must have been a lot of walkers assigned to corral 5 as we had a hard time getting around them for the first 2 miles.  The first 1/2 mile was particularly frustrating--the walkers were everywhere.  We even saw one (or two) carrying their purses!!!  Once we got around the walkers, we settled into a comfortable pace.  Then, we had to stop for a bathroom break.

 

The break took a bit longer than we would have liked (we estimate somewhere around 4-5 minutes were spent waiting for the port-a-potties).  It also put us back in the pack with some of the slower paced runners, which were challenging to get through again.  After that, we were really on our way.  We cruised through the halfway point feeling good.  I typically start to hate the run somewhere around mile 9, but I was feeling good all the way through about mile 11.  At that point, things started tightening up and water was sloshing in my stomach, but we soldiered on and finished strong.  We finished just under 2:22--that's seven full minutes faster than I ran it last year.  And, I felt particularly good because I think we could have easily taken off at least 10 minutes (if we'd been able to start at a faster pace and if we'd have been able to skip the long bathroom break). 

All in all, it was a great race and I was so glad that I had Danie there for support and company.  It made the time pass much faster.  :)  It was like the old PIHS CC days (albeit slower and longer distance).  

Next up, the Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon in Las Vegas in December--followed closely by the Rock 'n' Roll Full Marathon in Phoenix in January!!