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Dec7

A New Half Marathon PR!

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Guys, I am BEAMING!! I PR’d at this morning’s Mistletoe Half Marathon!! My overall average pace was about a 7:35 min/mile for an official overall time of 1:39:37. I am beyond thrilled – that’s 3 minutes faster than my previous PR, which happened at this race last year.

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In keeping with tradition, here are my top 10 Favorite Things about the 2013 Mistletoe Half Marathon, in no real order. (You can read my top 10 favorite things from 2010, 2011, and 2012 – although I didn’t exactly do a full list for 2012. 🙂 )

10. No rain! The forecast kept calling for it but we lucked out! And it wasn’t freezing cold either. I could have done without the wind though. It was brutal on the last mile – I could feel it pushing me around!

9. Pace groups. This was the first time they’ve had pacers, which is a great addition. One of my friends was the pacer for the 1:35 group, which was cool, but I hovered around the 1:40 group. I passed the 1:40 group when I was feeling strong only to get passed by them again later. The hills at the end killed me (that darn Reynolda Village one – who hears me WS folks?!), but I actually ended finishing right ahead of them.

8. Better fitting shirts! Last year’s shirts were enormous. They were still big this year but that’s because I’m short and petite. But lucky me, they had extra Youth Larges so I snagged one of those. (Although it’s still a bit big. ha!)

7. An indoor area to wait after the race with coffee :D. Maybe they’ve had the gym open in the past but I don’t remember knowing about it. Granted, John and I went home and showered before the awards ceremony but it was nice to come back and keep warm inside. (I think they also let people shower at the Y if you don’t live close by.)

6. Seeing many friends at the start line. I’ve made so many friends in this town through running and it’s fun to see them at races. It gave me energy and also helped calm some of my nerves. Another cool thing was right before the gun went off, a girl next to me tapped me and it was the girl that I’d barely beat the Brighter Path 10K! It was fun to start together and even run together for a bit along the course. She beat me today! 🙂 I love the camaraderie of runners, even those “competing” against each other.

5. Seeing so many friends cheering for me at the finish line! I wish I’d thought to take out my earbuds so I could hear them, but it was fun seeing them cheer. And sweet Meg saw me out on the course and took a picture for me! I wish I’d seen her!! Looking at this picture, I asked John if I still heel strike. He said I don’t, that I land with a flat foot so this must have been right before my foot flattens out. (I’m nervous of heel striking because that’s part of what caused so many running injuries for me before I switched to Vibrams.) I should probably still work on keeping my legs under me more.

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4. John running up to me and lifting me up in a giant bear hug when I finished. He gets just as excited for me to PR as I do. 🙂

3. John PR’d too!!! He ran a 1:27! Yes, I know. SO. FREAKING. FAST. And he placed 3rd in his age group, and got a sweet medal! They are enormous and gorgeous. I wish I’d placed just because I liked the medal so much! 🙂 I was 4th in my age group (so close!) and 20th overall female.

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2. My knee held up!! I was literally trembling this morning because I was so nervous to run the race. Since I fell three months ago, I’d only done one run longer than 6 miles (I did a 10 miler 3 or 4 weeks ago) so I was really nervous I didn’t have any distance in me. My legs definitely got tired and I faded towards the end but I was just grateful to be running and without pain. My knee started to ache and feel a little off-track (you know what I mean?) around mile 10 but it held up and I have no pain in it now, so that’s good.

1. My PR!!!!!! I’m just beaming. I was nervous about even finishing, and never even considered that I’d PR. I did run with my Garmin (despite my thoughts on my last post), but I actually didn’t look at it after mile 2. I was running around a 7:50 minute mile for the first two miles, and then I told myself to listen to my body and not let my pace dictate how I run, and I felt myself pick up speed. I was actually quite proud of myself for resisting the temptation to look. I checked it around the 12th mile so I knew how close I was to my PR, and when I saw my time, it motivated me to try to break 1:40. And now my legs are pretty tired and getting sore – and that’s a good sign of a good race!

I know some of you raced today at Mistletoe and at others, and to all of you, GREAT JOB today! 😀 I hope you all had great races! If you ran today, leave a comment and let me know! I love connecting with people on race day, near and far.

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    41 responses to “A New Half Marathon PR!”

    1. Many congrats on the PR!! What a sweet and festive name for the race too. Have a wonderful weekend.

    2. It was so great seeing you today. When I saw you on the course you were flying! Nice to run into (clean) you afterwards, later I regretted not asking to meet John. Great job, Teri!

    3. You and John are on a tear with your races lately! Great work! Love this top 10 list and congrats again – how fun!

    4. So great that you PR’d. Awesome time! You looked great in that picture. Love that you blogged about this race! Love the top 10, too. Congrats to you and John.

    5. girl!!! you are amazing! congrats !!

      love that pic of John and you 😉

      xoxo
      cannot wait to see you…in the new year!

    6. Great work Teri! Glad the knee held up. That’s impressive that you only did one double digit run in the last few months. Just shows that the short speedy stuff can be enough for those longer races.

    7. Congratulations! You did a great job!

      It was perfect weather. We were so fortunate! I PR’d also with 2:29 and 8 minutes off of my time from Mistletoe last year so I was pleased with that. I have to say though, that my favorite part of this post is where you said, “I think they also let people shower at the Y if you don’t live close by.” This cracks me up because I don’t think I’d ever have time to shower before the awards because I cross the finish line and then the awards happen like twenty minutes later. 🙂

      Anyway congrats, girl!

    8. Congrats to you and John on the PRs!! Yesterday was an awesome day for Mistletoe – it’s such a great community race. I’m with you – The wind coming down Northwest was brutal when trying to push the final stretch. I ended up PR’ing by 5 1/2 minutes (1:54:14) over my half 7 weeks ago (which was a 12 min PR – so I’m down about 17 min since last Spring – hurray for speed work). Chris ended up getting a 61 sec PR too. So glad the cold rain held off until today! When laid off for an injury like your knee, endurance stays around a lot longer than you’d think from marathon training and with all the shorter races you’ve done recently, it’s no surprise you could use your speed for a PR without many long runs- Congrats again!
      Jenni (Oliver the GSP’s PupMom)

      • I’m so glad you commented Jenni! John and I were talking about you guys and wondering how you did. AWESOME job on taking so much time off your half marathon time in the past year – that’s amazing! Congrats to Chris too! Hope you are staying warm and dry in this weather. Maizey is a hot mess getting covered in mud. 😐

        I love that you commented as GSP’s PupMom. ha! 🙂

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