Mercer Island Half 2014

I like this race for a few simple reasons.
1. Timing for it is good cause it makes you start training right away in the new year.
2. It is cheap and well orchestrated.
3. It is pretty cool to circumnavigate the island on foot.



I dislike it for mostly one reason:



So many dang hills!

I did the barest of bare bone training for this one because I have been sick so often this year. But I did get in all of my long runs. Most of them were with my super sweet and adorable run buddy (he did up to seven miles). I also routinely got my main two short weekday runs in thanks to support from my super sweet and adorable husband.

Thanks to this minimal training and my long break from running this year all of my training runs were pretty dang slow.

So I had prepared myself for a slowish time on race day.

I got to the start and had lovely messages of encouragement from friends. I used the bathroom twice and realized i'd left my hat in the car but was too lazy to go back for it.




It was shaping up to be a great day for a run. Pretty chilly but clear and blue skies.

Once I crossed the start line it took me a mile or two to get in the groove but I was surprising myself with a pretty good pace. So then I decided to do something I haven't done in a half before, not worry about the end miles. I usually am worried i'll tire myself out or make my tummy issues bad by going too fast. But yesterday I thought, "fuck it."

So I kept running, up all the freaking hills and was at about a 10min pace for the first nine miles. I think the 10k split was even close to my 10k PR. Then I felt kinda tired and kind of heavy stomached.

I took the cliff shot that they were handing out at mile nine and it helped a bit.

The last two miles of this course SUCK. A very long hill and then lots of rolls until the uphill finish line. That hurt.

My time wasn't a pr but was my second best half time (by 15 seconds).

I felt like crap the rest of the day and ate like a mad woman.

Michael asked me in January what my goals were for this run. I told him I wanted to finish it and have completed training while still losing weight. So I did meet that goal. I am down about ten pounds since the first of the year but still have five or six baby pounds to go. I never got a good handle on weight loss while running and nursing. It was very complicated. So I am glad to turn down the intensity of exercise and focus on my eating habits.

All in all I am really happy with how everything turned out and I could not have asked for better weather for it.


Here are a few pictures of my support crew (not the cat, he did very little)








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