Resilient Running (Divas Half Marathon)

Hey Runners!

I'm happy to announce I just finished my first half marathon since sustaining a stress fracture in my pelvis one year ago. After 4 months off of running, followed by a long period of rebuilding confidence, strength, and fitness, I was both stoked and terrified to tackle this race! Here's how it went....

I woke up in the morning full of nerves like usual, but I kept reminding myself to trust my training and believe in my inner and physical strength. I always go into a race with a public goal and a private goal. My public goal is what I share with anyone who asks, and to this I answer, "I just want to have fun and finish strong and healthy!" My private goal is what I keep to myself, and it was to come in sub 1:50.

As we took off from the start, I decided to let my legs determine my pace, and not worry about checking my GPS watch too much. Halfway through, I felt amazing and knew I was on track to meet my public AND private goals. Then, right before mile 7, we turned around to head back and the headwind kicked in.

I knew I'd really have to push myself if I wanted to meet that private goal. My legs felt good and my breathing was even, so I decided to use my Garmin to help me keep a pace between 8:10-8:20. As I sprinted down the chute, I saw the clock reading 1:49:45 and counting. Since I started at least 30 seconds after the gun, I knew I'd meet my private goal, and I DID!!

My official finish time was 1:49:15, which was an overall 8:19/mile pace. I came in 10th out of 306 in my division (F 30-34), and 55th overall out 1,985. My hip felt great, and other than some sore feet and tight calves, I felt physically strong through the finish.