Half Marathon!!!

I can't believe it's actually time for the first Lexington Half Marathon!! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! Yes, that's exactly how I feel. I'm getting a little bit of the pre-race jitters. Can I do it? Well sure......provided nothing bad happens. Lately I have been having some issues with my knees, so hopefully they won't act up. But I want to be able to run it strong and feeling good! I want to bounce across the finish line! Not have to drag myself, crawling on my hands and knees! And hopefully it won't take me forever to run the course. I'm slow. That's just the way things are. I've not been doing this long enough to get fast yet. I hope in my old age I'm still able to pick up some speed!! I believe I will do the Half in about 2 hours and 30 minutes.....something in that range. I guess we'll see soon enough! The race is Sunday morning at 8:00. I sure hope we have nice weather! No rain! Sunshine!!

A few weeks ago when we did 13 miles during our group training runs, I thought I was going to die!!!!! It was a horrible run. Well, I actually ended up walking a goodly portion during the last 3 or 4 miles. It was bad. I had no energy. No umph! No nothing!! My friend Cyndi (and running partner on these long runs) was just bouncing along! I wanted to smack her upside her head. I finally got her to go on and let me crawl back to our starting spot. I PRAY the race is not like that. However, a couple of weeks later I did a 9 mile run -- and we actually did it over part of the Half Marathon course. That run was great!! I felt good, ran strong, never felt like I couldn't make it. It was a really good run!! I PRAY the race is more like that!!

I've never done a big race like this......just a couple of 5Ks. So I'm excited to be a part of the crowd, the enthusiasm, the excitement! I just hope I'm not the last one coming in. :-(

I have to give a GREAT BIG shout out for our running group and mostly for our leader, Ernie! If it had not been for the group, there's no way I would be able to do the Half. Ernie got the group started, gave us spreadsheets of training runs to do during the week, dished out advice, led the group runs on Saturdays, all in all, he's been a great leader! There's no way I would have been out there running in 15 degree weather, in the snow on those cold dark Saturday mornings if it wasn't for the group. It really has been a looooong cold winter. But because of that stupid spreadsheet that Ernie gave me, showing the runs I was to do, I felt I had to get out there and run! I greatly appreciate all that he has done to get us ready for the race!! I will still continue to run with the group on Saturdays and hope to train for another half. I'm thinking about doing the Hatfield-McCoy Half Marathon. I think it's appropriate since I'm part of the Hatfield clan! GO HATFIELDS!!!