Frost Bite – Half Marathon

This is going to be one hell of a weekend, I told myself on Friday night. Just like the header image I created a couple of weeks before, after signing up for four races.

I have never attempted anything like this before, so I was a little skeptical about how everything was going to turn out and was keeping my fingers crossed that it would be favorable to me. This weekend would be special, as I would be running a half marathon (Frost Bite) tomorrow and a full marathon (Mercedes Marathon) the next day. I packed my bags on Fri night after dinner. Charged up my Garmin, double-checked my to-carry list and hit the bed.

Got picked up by Diane at 9:45am and we headed to Cedars of Lebanon. A beautiful state park located in Lebanon, TN. It was cold, very cold. We saw Keith warming up on our way to the parking lot. Met Kim and Amanda, friends of Diane, and two awesome runners. After a brief conversation, we collected our BIBs. My first half marathon. A couple of folks wished me luck for my first half marathon and were asking me to run a full marathon soon. They gave me weird looks when I told them that I had completed two full marathons already. :)

It was time. I was excited about running this one in my VFF. This would be the longest run in my VFF ever since I got them. The course was ‘relatively’ hilly and pretty much asphalt/gravel all the way. The race started on time and off we went from the start line. Met a couple of folks from the ‘Flying Monkey’ marathon at the start line. They are everywhere. Again, my VFF attracted a lot of runners, and they were shooting questions at me. My answer was simple: ‘It’s great, my feet feel good, and you should give it a try’. I was feeling good running in them.

20 minutes into the run and I was really warmed up. Ran at an easy conversation pace for the first few miles. The final stretch, the long road was cruel. It seemed endless until we took a turn to enter the park area. The course was pretty much hilly. I wanted to do a sub-2:00, but that seemed to be an impossible task. Missed my goal by 3 minutes; nevertheless, it was my PR for my first half marathon. I crossed the finish line in 2:03:40 comfortably, posing for John, who was clicking pictures at the finish line. (Thanks a lot, John!)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/25398642

I was starving by now. Headed to the rest area and grabbed three slices of pepperoni pizza, pretzels and Mountain Dew. Met a couple more runners who had come all the way from Kentucky. There were lots of runners curious about my VFF. Had a nice conversation with all of them while hogging my pizza. Diane soon joined us. After walking around a bit, I headed to hit the shower. It was still freaking cold and a hot shower felt great.

My feet felt good. No soreness except for a little pain in my right ankle. Can’t afford to get hurt, especially with a marathon to run tomorrow. It was 2:30 PM and we were all set to hit the road to Birmingham, AL for our Mercedes Marathon.

Alabama, here we come! :)