Half Marathon day

Hi friends!

Mike and I are spending today/tonight at my parent's house in Indiana for the night - which means limited computer time - so I'm going to break this into two posts.

I'm happy to report that this morning I had a great 13 miler! I actually ended up running ahead with some other runners from my pace group, in addition to sprinting the last 1 1/2 miles or so (not sure where that energy came from but I went with it!) so I ended up running closer to 13.5 miles, or maybe a bit further.

Though it was sunny the whole time, which usually sucks the life out of me, somehow the weather seemed perfect to me. I felt awesome "lung wise" and endurance-wise, which to me is usually how I measure a good run. You have to expect a slight bit of discomfort when running long distance, but today luckily all I had was a bit of soreness on the soles of my feet.

I'm slightly nervous because it was about right now - week 8 or so - two years ago when I first developed plantar fasciitis which ended up stopping me from running at all for 6 weeks in the middle of training.

With this knowledge, I'm going to try to take extra good care of my feet on a daily basis - icing, stretches, and above all, wearing shoes that help, not hurt, my feet.

I was going to snack on a Clif Gu before leaving my house for the run, but then I realized that I would have to down more water with the Gu and I didn't want to have to stop for the bathroom mid-run so I instead opted for a banana (plus my chilled espresso shot, of course!)

I brought along a Clif Blok and Clif Shot but later realized that the Clif Blok contained 2 servings and was 200 calories - which would last me through the entire 13 miles - so I ended up giving my Clif Shot to another runner who hadn't brought anything along for fuel.
After the run, I immediately came home to ice my feet and chugged some coconut water. I love this stuff! It's a tad sweet, is very refreshing, and is a hell of a lot tastier (and less chemical-y) than Gatorade.

Today ended up being my best half marathon time ever!! I wasn't aiming to break my PR, but it just worked out that way and it also happened to be my most effortless 1/2 ever which I feel good about. I especially appreciate this because my long runs have consistently been more effortless than my short runs - this has been true almost every week during the last 8 weeks. I've talked to other runners and have found that we all seem to have this in common - have anyone of you found this to be true? I know Karena has mentioned this before!

Many of the runners in my pace group opted out of running today and instead are running their 13 miles in the official half marathon tomorrow, the Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon - just wanted to tell them all good luck and to have a great race!! :)

Alrite, I'm off to work on the second posting of the day - it should be food of fun health food store goodies and Indiana food - talk to you soon!