Phoenix Half Marathon Recap

This recap is going to be short and sweet – well my version of short and sweet! Because to tell you the truth, the actual race itself was a big ole blur, and I have another race coming up in 2.5 days! I only got a little over 5 hours of sleep the night before the race, and due to the very early start and bus departure time, I needed to wake up at 3:30 a.m. Yes. 3:30. Sometimes Mr. Zucchini Runner and I go to bed at 2:00 a.m., so this early wake-up was rough. Also, some of you may recall from last year’s full marathon, that my alarm never went off and I woke up at 6:03 a.m., when the race had already started. Needless to say, I took extra precautions this year by setting THREE alarm clocks.

As you can imagine, Mr. Zucchini Runner was thrilled about this. 🙂 But it turned out I didn’t need them! I am permanently scarred for life from my last experience, which prompted me to wake up at 1:30 a.m., 2:37 a.m. and then finally seconds before alarm #1 went off at 3:30 a.m.

I was out the door and on my way to the race within 45 minutes, when suddenly I ran into this traffic jam miles from the shuttle bus parking area.

Noooooooooooooo!

Luckily it passed, and before I knew it I was at the half marathon start line, looking at this site with tears in my eyes. Tears for the memories it stirred up from last year when I was running the full, all alone for the first 14 miles, due to my super late start. I had missed some of the best parts of running a race — the people, the camaraderie and the energy from hundreds of energized bodies anxiously waiting to start their race. I pushed back the tears, smiled and then looked at the friends all around me… so grateful.

I was anything but alone this year! Look at all these beautiful, smiling faces! So happy for our running group Run Eat Tweet AZ. I’ve met so many cool people in the last year. 🙂

Fellow Run Eat Tweet AZ CRO and founder, Jeremy and I snagged one last pic before we crossed under the starting arch! I was showing off my brand new Orange Mud handheld water bottle. This was my first time using it and I’m happy to report it worked great! Thanks for the recommendation Jeremy!

Once the race started, Jeremy and I stuck together for about the first 7 miles. My goal was to go out easy for the first half and then pick it up slightly for the last half. I didn’t want to push really hard, because of my other half marathon this coming Saturday and wanted to use this race as more of a training run. Looking at my splits, I was able to stick to that pretty well.

I wasn’t super consistent, but considering this was my first 13.1 miles on road since my 26.2 LAST YEAR… I’m not going to be hard on myself. I’m actually quite impressed with how quickly I’m getting my speed back! I’ve also been using a heart rate monitor to ensure I’m not doing too much, too soon. I have a tendency to push myself really hard and not even realize it! (A huge thanks to the book 80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgerald, recommended by Liz at BitchinRunner!) Below is the extent of my training for this coming Saturday’s half, so there won’t be any PR’s, but I’m on my way there slowly!

As you can see, I finished with a time of 1:51:59 for my Phoenix Half Marathon training run. 🙂 I finished nice and strong and tried SO SO hard not to make my race face (otherwise known as “The Face” in my house) at the finish – I did not succeed and therefore, no race finishing pics. I finish strong during my training runs too but you can see I pushed extra hard since I had the clock counting down in front of me.

After the race I met back up with Jeremy, who was not far behind. We chatted a bit, got our picture taken and went to check out the post-race area.

We were actually both freezing, so decided to change into warm, dry clothes then met back up to cheer on all our friends running the full marathon. It was SO much fun waiting on the sidelines, cheering ALL the runners on. Then when we’d see someone we knew the cheering turned into freak out screaming!! So proud of every single runner, but it’s always extra special when you know them!

Until next year Phoenix Marathon! Looking forward to the fun and miles already! (Maybe for 2016 I will register more than one week before too!)

 

 

 

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