Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon - St Louis

Well, it's over! I celebrated my 31st birthday today with a fabulous 13.1 mile run! 

Since I knew I had to get up at 5:15, I set everything up last night. I set out my clothing, my hydration and nutrition, shoes, etc.   

This morning, all I had to do was get dressed, get everything in the car and apply my KT tape! I ate a banana, drank my 5hr energy and we were on our way! 

I won't lie, I came out of the gate hard.  My first two miles I ran in a 9:48 min/mile.  It was comfortable, I wasn't pushing myself too hard.  I got really excited because I was close to the 2:30 pace runners.  Then, suddenly, I PASSED the 2:30 pace runners! 

Around mile 3.75/4, I dropped a water bottle. Someone caught up to me and told me, but I was doing SUCH a good pace, I decided not to go back for it. 

It wasn't until mile 8 that I started to feel the burn out from starting fast. My feet were hurting - that was it! I felt my 2:15 goal slipping away. I kept telling myself "Only 5 more miles - YOU HAVE THIS" and trying to take myself out of the equation. I started looking at the architecture of downtown St. Louis, that I ordinarily wouldn't see. I was looking at all the fall leaves. I was looking at the signs that people posted (Shout out to the awesome truth-teller around mile 8 with the sign saying "you are NOT almost done!") (and the kid with the sign "Those are NOT tears of pain, you are just sweating out of your eyeballs!!").  I spent a few miles with my headphones out (ignoring the voice of my pace and total time, since it was off by a good .3 of a mile!) just taking in all the sights and sounds around me. 

In the end, friends - I am proud of my finish.  Here are the facts, my OFFICIAL time: 

As you can see, I missed my DREAM goal time of 2:15, but I wasn't far off at 2:24. I'm proud of my placing withing my gender and my division, even "overall" wasn't a bad place! I shaved almost a full 30 minutes off of my time from the Princess race in February and even 2 minutes off of my 10K time from last WEEKEND!  

All in all? Happy freaking birthday to me!!