Race Recap: My First Half-Marathon

Yesterday morning I woke ready for my first half-marathon, The Police Half-Marathon, and I looked out the window and saw this:

Look familiar? It should because that's what I woke up to for my 10 km the other weekend. Lets clear things up, the snow did melt right after the 10km and for 2 weeks the weather was looking quite nice (well sort of). But no, the weather gods knew I had a race coming up, so they unleashed the white fluffy stuff just in time. So that's 2 races down, 2 snowy days. Is dry pavement really that big of a pipe dream?

Anyway, I bundled up, sucked it up and head out to the race. My final time was 1:55:50 and I'm damn proud of it. When I was training I actually went faster, but in the thick snow, I was just happy to break 2 hours. It really slows you down (not to mention numerous people fell during the race)

Here are a few things I learned after completing the race:

- Show up early to find parking. Don't cut it to 5 min before the start of the race.

- Running in snow sucks. Ice is worse. And slush just kills me. Lucky for me, I got all three.

- Music for racing. Podcasts for training.
-Bagpipes and a cheering crowd at the top of a steep hill are very motivating.

- At about the 1 mile left point, I decided that I will never run a marathon (ok I'm 90% sure). I give props to all those out there who have done one.

- For a few hours afterwards, I will likely make grunting noises every time I have to use my legs.
-There are a lot of fast people out there. 353 people finished ahead of me.
- Bill can run faster than all of the cops (that were in the race). The race was put on my the police force and several members ran the race. Not that Bill needs to outrun the cops.

I do plan to do another half. I'm now addicted. But I will definitely plan it for later in the year so I can run on dry pavement!