Now where did I leave off…13.1 mi.

On Sunday, June 5th, Brent and I ran our first race and first 1/2 marathon of the year 2011. It was a beautiful morning with few clouds in the sky which was to make for the hottest day that we have had so far this year. The half marathon course started up a little way up the mountain and then weaved its way back down through the edge of Bozeman to finish on the campus track. We jogged around for a few moments to get our bodies warmed up, found the porta-potty, headed to the starting line, and then took off. Brent took off in front of me and slowly started to escape away from my view. I was feeling really good and strong for the first few miles. Then, the first hill came, the second hill, and then a few others came and went. I love running hills in my workouts, but I have not done too many this year as we have stuck close to home for most of our runs which is flat territory. At one point, I started slowly creeping up on Brent. He was not feeling very well which threw off his pace. For a moment, I thought that I was going to catch him until he realized how close I was and picked the pace back up as much as he could. I knew he would when he saw that I was so close. It made him realize how off he was from his normal pace. The hills went away and we finished up the last couple miles on flat ground. My legs were screaming at me for not taking them on more hills. The last lap and a half on the track seemed to take forever as I could see the finish line as soon as I stepped on, but then I passed by the finish line with one more lap to go. Usually, I give the last mile to a quarter mile my all, but it was not happening this time. Even though the hills were difficult for me, I was able to set a personal record (PR) of 1:57:45. I wanted to PR, but was unsure if I would as I knew about the hills and the fact that I had not trained for any this year. Brent finished a couple minutes in front of me and was there to cheer me on through my last few steps. I always love seeing him at the finish line. (Even if he always beats me.) We spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoy the nice warm weather.