DIVA Half Marathon!!

The weekend I had been training for for the past 12 weeks finally arrived! My dear friends Mandy, Kate and I ran the inaugural DIVA Half Marathon in Eisenhower Park on Long Island. I trained really hard up until the last 2 weeks. I got lazy for some reason, and found it hard to get up in the morning now that it's dark out! But, no matter what...that couldn't stop me from running what I signed up for months ago, trained really hard for 10 weeks, and paid $75 to do so! We met up on Saturday to get our race number, race t-shirt and score some freebies!

Afterward, we went back to our house with my parents where we had an "Around the World" meal prepared by Chris' mom of grape leaves, spring rolls, dumplings, and ZITI!! I was mostly excited for the ziti so I could get my carbo-load on before the big race. After dinner we three girls went for a walk to help digest a little bit, watched some tv, went in the hot tub to relax and all of us were in bed a little after midnight! Not too bad for a Saturday night!

At 6:00 Mandy's alarm went off our in our living room and I literally popped wide awake. My alarm hadn't even gone off yet, but I was up and ready to go! My anxious nerves kicked in immediately. We quickly got ready and went out to my car to drive to the park. It was freeeeezing and still rather dark outside.

When we got close to the park the traffic was terrible! It was backed up for what seemed like miles! (I was one of "those people" who drove up to the front and then cut in...yea...deal with it.)This was intimidating to be behind as we were waiting to park:

We finally parked and had about 20 minutes to get warmed up for the start. Lots of people were walking to the start line:

We took our places. We all heard that 4000 women were running but it apparently was only 2080. Still a good number, but it wasn't nearly as packed as I thought it was going to be, which was nice. What was miraculous was not only did the race start right on time..but we were pretty much right up front and started about 30 seconds after the race actually started!

Throughout the race a number of things crossed my mind. Firstly, I felt great. It was soooo cold that morning, but it actually was the perfect temp. in which to run a race. I had to take my brand new (thanks mama!) green running jacket off by mile 2, which proved a bit difficult since my number was pinned to it! Little lessons learned. But as soon as the race started, I could tell that I was going to be in the zone for this one.

I was glad that I took my electrolyte jelly beans before the race and I had one gu packet at about 6.5 miles. This was good for me and helped give me the energy I needed. I only took water from 3 water stations along the route...and that was in the last half. I didn't have any water until after 6 miles. If it was hot, I definitely would have needed more...but that was what I did during training and so that's what I did with the race. I didn't want to get bloated, or have water sloshing around in my stomach. Plus, I can't drink water and run at the same time and I didn't feel like stopping to drink water unless I really needed it. I looooved listening to my 175 beats per minute podcast. It's a 6.5 mile session and listening to it twice took me through the whole thing. It kept me on an even pace the entire time and definitely helped me achieve the time that I did. I'm addicted to these podcasts!

I got my feather boa and tiara a little before mile 12 and tried so hard to power through the last mile but my knees were hurting me so badly by then, it was really hard to concentrate on anything else. I usually stop to stretch my knee once or twice but they really didn't bother me until the last 3 miles and I figured at the point..I could just power through it. I put majooor strain on them doing this race, mainly because my quads aren't as strong as they should be. Next race, that has to be my main focus so I don't completely wreck my knees at the tender age of 25. I crossed the finish line at 2:03:36 but my official time was 2:03:06 because I didn't start immediately with the clock. My goal was 2:10 and I am so happy! This also give me a new goal: to break 2 hours! I can def. do it, I was so close!! Kate and Mandy both did amazingly well and I think it's safe to say that this will not be their last half marathon. They've both got the bug!

Mandy finishes!

After the race we were greeted by firefighters who handed us roses (and I got a hug from mine!) champagne (no thank you), our huge DIVA-esque medal (picture coming soon) and brown paper bags to fill with bagels, bananas, luna bars, popchips, wheat things, fruit bites, etc., etc. I downed my bagel and it was soooo amazing. We got our picture taken for our medals and then waited and waited for Chris and Billly to arrive.

Unfortunately, Chris and Billy had quite a bit of trouble finding where the race was. They actually walked about 4 miles of the actual half marathon trail in order to find us. It was a bummer...but we can't say they didn't try. And they got a nice morning walk in! Nick DID get there in time to see Kate finish, brought her a blanket to warm up, AND a Jelly doughnut. Major props to that kid!

All in all it was a successful day, we're all still feeling the repercussions of putting our bodies through that. My quads and knees really hurt, Kate has a huge blister on her foot, and Mandy is at Duane Reade getting a bandage for her foot as I type this. It's true we're DIVAS through and through, but hey! We just ran 13.2 miles...Booyah!!

We did it!!

I reached 600 miles for the year!
Miles Run Saturday: 13.2
Total Miles Run for 2010: 601.7