3 months and 23 days. Over 400 miles. Lots of early mornings, tired legs, and humidity. My first-ever half marathon training block and race is over!

I am so proud to say I accomplished my goal of finishing the half marathon in under 2 hours. 1:58:25 to be exact! I even finished 2nd place out of 13 in my age division. My mom and Alex were there at the start of the race, cheering me on at several spots along the way, and they were at the finish line as I ran through. It meant so much to me for them to be there, and I tear up every time I think about it.

Looking back, there are a few things that I would have done differently. One would be to incorporate more hills into my training. I had posted on the blog before about how I was starting to incorporate harder routes into my runs and how I hoped it wasn't too late in the training to help me. Well, I think I did it in the nick of time. I feel like adrenaline got me through the tougher hills early on in the race, but the last two slowed me down by a good 45 seconds. I can only imagine if I had incorporated hills into my training from the beginning that those last couple of hills wouldn't have been so difficult.

Though I don't think it affected my time, I will definitely make sure to stretch more for future races. I know I slacked on it at times, and it will only benefit you in the long run (no pun intended) if you make it a priority.

Lastly, I want to get to a place where I can find a balance between strength training and running. I abandoned all strength training for this race because I was fortunate enough to have about 3 years of it under my belt already. I had significant muscle mass for my size, so I felt comfortable just focusing on the running portion of training. I know this isn't a long-term strategy, especially if I choose to continue running competitively.

Running is kind of like a relationship. There will be ups and downs along the way. Some days will be harder than others. But when you love something, or someone, the hard times tend to appear as a shadow and the good times are what stay in the light of your memory. Yeah it is a lot of work, but in the end it's worth it. When I first decided to do this half marathon back in March of this year, I had no idea what I was getting into. Now on the other side of it all, I wouldn't have changed a thing! It wasn't easy, but I am better for having accomplished it.

So what now? I'm really not sure. The only thing I know for sure is I will be enjoying these several days off for recovery. I am certainly not done running either!

If you have followed me on this journey from "ok" to 21k, thank you! I will be sure to post whatever it is I decide to do next in the near future.

Talk soon!

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