The Second Time Around is Always Better?

This weekend, I completed my second half marathon. My friend Erin and I planned a girls weekend down in Newport, RI which included running Sunday's Amica Marathon/United Healthcare Half Marathon.

The course was beautiful--we ran along the ocean and through the city's best parts--but the "rolling" course (more like hills and steady and subtle inclines for most of the way) was more than my little Midwest legs could handle. I felt every little incline, ones I probably wouldn't have if I had been used to running on the East Coast.

Within the first half mile of the race we were forced to run up a hill and there were plenty along the rest of the way (although not all were as steep). My mental anxiety kicked in and I was struggling to get through each one. Erin was a superstar running buddy, congratulating me after I made it up each one and telling me I could do it. We even started a little game where we would compare each hill to a food item--for example, Erin would say this hill is like an omelet because it takes a while to make it, but once you're over the hard part you can finally enjoy it. I think we also used waffles, ice cream sundaes, brownies and pancakes as distractions. It worked for a while.

By Mile 8 my legs felt like spaghetti and were hard to keep moving. Every time I thought I hit my stride, I'd run into another incline. At Mile 9, I had a mini-meltdown, nearly crying that I couldn't make it the rest of the way. The thought of running four more miles caused me launch into almost a full-on panic attack. Erin was understanding and helped me talk myself into knowing I could finish. So we ran on... with some stretching stops and walking breaks in between.
Despite the meltdown and my burning quads, we finished in 2:37:12 (just a minute longer than my time from my first half marathon in August, which was along a flat course). Despite the challenge and the mental breakdown, I enjoyed the scenic course, the girl-bonding time and the views we got of the ocean. I miss those views.

My quads are still a little sore, but thanks to the compression sleeves I got for my legs for the race (they help blood circulation or something like that) I had far less soreness than I did after my first half). My Achilles didn't feel like they were going to rip around Mile 10 and my feet didn't hurt so bad after that I felt like I couldn't walk after crossing the finish line. Best money I've spent in a while.

Despite my new addiction for collecting race medals (I have four now!), I'm going to have to put off running any more halfs for a while. Running two in a two-month period got me a little burned out, which I'm blaming for the Mile 9 mental breakdown. I think I'll take a week off and then get back to running shorter distances while working on increasing my speed--doctor's orders (she thinks it will help me lose more weight by increasing my intensity and heart rate). The gold star from my doctor is one medal I'm still looking to add to my collection.