Urban Cow Half Marathon

Most of you know that I am partial to cycling. During the year I do very little, if any, running. I spend hours on the bike commuting, cruising, training, and racing. In September a few of my girlfriends (Jenny, Amanda, Whitney) and I decided to register for the CIM relay on December 5th. I figured I needed to put the old running shoes on if I was going to survive. I didn't want to be the one to die during our relay. I decided to participate in the Urban Cow 1/2 marathon. It starts right here in Land Park. I figured I could just wake up and walk over. I hate the 8am start times and 1-3 hour drives for cycling. I don't intend to wake up early every weekend during the off season too. This was going to be perfect. The problem was that I only had a month to prepare.

My friend Kath gave me a training plan that was 12 weeks long. I just skipped right to the 8 week mark because I didn't have the 3 months. I was hoping that my cycling fitness would help me out a little. I tried my best to follow the schedule. I substituted the Wednesday running speed work day for a cycling speed day. I was having a hard time running fast enough on the slower pace days anyway, and it was a good excuse to ride my bike. Keith and I would compare my cycling data to my running data. I could race my MTB bike at an average heart rate of 185 for an hour and a half, but I couldn't get my HR over 119 while running. Ya I was slow, my muscles just didn't respond quickly to the running thing. I just continued to train and decided to bring Keiths fathers dog along on each run. She was getting a little chubby so I figured she would benefit. I'm sure she enjoyed every bit of the training.

Well, today was the day of Urban Cow, my first half marathon. I must say I completely surprised myself. I finished about 10/15 minutes faster then I thought I would. I guessed that I would run about a 10 min mile pace. I guess the dog slows me down. ha. She had to sit out for the big race today though. I didn't have time to stop for her bathroom breaks. I only had to make one pee stop! I was planning on two.

Keith came out to watch me which was quite encouraging. I looked for him in every crowd. It was like a "Where is Waldo" game for me. He just looked so cute with the camera. I love that boy. He had to leave for work right after the finish, and I went searching for a family friend (Mary). I found her! I enjoyed hanging out and catching up:) I also bumped into Vee and Jill. You won't find them in the results. haha. Tagalongs.... wait is that a cookie? Yummmmm. I must say Vee and Jill were quite ambitious and decided to run a half marathon at the last minute (this morning).

As you probably figured, I am an extremest and randomly just do things. Today I was thinking about qualifying for the Boston marathon. I looked up the qualifying time (3:40:59). Hmmmm Maybe next year. haha. As of right now I am not sure I will be able to stand after sitting so long to write this blog. I hurt. I also wish I would have known about this arm pit chafing thing. People mentioned thigh chafing, but my hips are so wide there is no way my legs would ever rub together...... apparently my arms rub quite a bit against my shirt though. I don't even know what to do to prevent that. I have butt butter. Do I use that? hmmm. I put a little Neosporin on my armpit rashes after my shower. It seems to be feeling better. I finished the day with a Chipotle Burrito. I ran into Rich there. I swear I am always seeing someone from the Land Park crew at Chipotle or Big Spoon. A girl can just never spurge without it being known. I figured the 13 mile run was enough to justify the burrito though. Maybe someone would like to accompany me to Big Spoon later.

Well here are the results of my first half marathon!:

Finish Time: 02:00:03

Pace: 09:10

Overall 956 of 3117

Female 361 of 1972

Female 25-29: 52 of 307

Here are some pictures, CHEESE.

The warm up

The Start

The Run

I'm DONE!

Thanks for reading!