The Gusher Half Marathon

This past Saturday was the Gusher Half Marathon in Beaumont, TX. I signed up for this race last year sometime because I really wanted the medal. I put it on the calender and kinda just forgot about it.  After last weekend's insane mileage and my crazy workload at work, I hadn't even gotten in a recovery run or adequate rest time. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting much out of this race. I was just going to take it easy and run it.

I had planned on getting up early race morning and driving the 1+ hour to Beaumont on my own and just drive back when it was over. But Hubby offered to go with me Friday night, so we drove over in time for packet pickup and I settled in for a good night's rest. The hotel offered a shuttle to the start, so I'd planned to be up and ready by 6 am. Umm...never trust a hotel alarm clock. The nice shuttle driver called at 6am wondering where I was and woke me up. I was actually having a dream that it was 7:30am and I had missed the start of the race!

So I threw on my clothes as fast as possible and ran out the door. I realized that I left Marvin the Garmin at home on the charger, but there was no time to fret about it now. Nor time to debate about the skirt I bought yesterday to run in. I just put it on and ran. Hubby was going to have the luxury of going back to bed.

Turns out he couldn't go back to sleep, so he ventured out to catch me at the start. It was very nice of him to come out (and even take pictures!). The race was very small, but was pretty well organized. Last year was the first year they put it on and I heard that there were no mile markers and they ran out of water. They definitely fixed those kinks this year.

The race started on time and we were off. I saw 3 guys wearing the Marathon Maniacs shirts. Kinda makes me want to join the Half Fanatics, but I'm not sure. Today I was definitely not a fanatic. In fact, I wanted to drop down to the 5k. The only thing that kept me going was my pride and the medal. My muscles were still sore from last weekend and I could tell from the beginning it wasn't going to be a good run. My lungs have been tight since last weekend and I coughed a lot during the race. We weaved around the college and then out onto the closed off highway for about a 4 mile stretch. Highway? Boring. I did that last weekend! Haha. The turn around was in downtown Beaumont and they had us weaving through the streets to pick up extra miles. Downtown was the prettiest part of the race and the sun was starting to come out. But then we hit the highway again and it was boring all over again. I couldn't wait for the finish line. Since I didn't have a watch, I was totally running on feel and I knew I was going slow.

Hubby stuck around while I ran and waited for me to finish and caught this video. I'm definitely not sprinting to the end, but I'm still giving it everything I had. There just wasn't anything in the tank. At least I'm running and not walking, right? 

 This picture pretty much sums up how I felt for most of the race. Actually, to be honest, this picture is worse. My lungs tightened up almost completely when I finished and it took a bit to suck in a good breath. FML

But slow and steady wins the race, right? Umm..no, but they do get an awesome medal!

Final time: 2:10:07

Good enough for 14th in my age group. Maybe I will try the race again next year - if I'd run 1:59 like I have 3x before, I'd have come in 4th!