PR but not Project Runway

That's as in "Personal Record," which I set for myself today by running the Indianapolis Half Marathon in 2:11:56! My previous best time was 2:14:57 in the Philadelphia Distance Run four years ago. I beat my time for the same race last year by six minutes. Last year's race was about 75 degrees and I was boiling. Today was in the low 60s, but warm enough to run in just a tank.

I know that two hours-eleven minutes is not a great time by any means. The marathon winner crossed only about ten minutes after me, and he ran TWICE the distance I did! But I'm very proud today because I've been battling injured feet for several months now, and even though I'm training for a marathon, I can only handle running about twice a week. The rest of my training is in cross training, swimming, weight lifting and sitting on the couch...I mean...okay, sitting on the couch. Not only that, but there is a huge hill at mile 10.8. Last year, I was cruising along at a sub-10 minute mile pace until I hit the hill, and I actually cried, it was so hard. This year, we've run a few training runs up the same hill (it's actually hillS, three biggies in a row) so I felt prepared. It was definitely still difficult, since we were running about two minutes a mile faster than we have been training, but I made it up running, not walking. You could tell who had trained and who hadn't; my running buddy and I were chanting, "We heart hills!" to motivate ourselves, while others walked up the hill shooting us daggers.



So all in all, a great day!

Marathon: t-minus 13 days!