Snake River Half Marathon Recap

I feel like this past weekend flew by and wasn’t really a race weekend. The race kind of crept up on Marc and I. I am training for a full marathon, so didn’t plan on racing this weekend. My goal was to help pace my husband to a sub 1:30 half marathon, but my body had other plans for race morning.

After dealing with a sinus infection for the past week and still draining, I wasn’t sure how the race would go. I have been getting migraines every day, and was up with R who had a bad cough and is still trying to kick this cold, the past 3 nights. Marc and I didn’t get much sleep the day before the race, but that’s the life of a parent.

Waking up with a migraine on race morning and a 2 hour drive to the race start made for an already wishing the day was over attitude. I wasn’t excited for race morning. One. because I don’t like this course, but for some reason we always sign up for this race. And two, because I had been living on little sleep the past week. It’s usually our kick off to spring racing, and the first race of the year though.

The Snake River half is an easy out and back. Entirely flat, but there’s typically always a headwind. This year the wind wasn’t near as bad as last year, but there was no tailwind. I was grateful for the light drizzle half way through the course, because 50 degrees seemed warmed.

My goal was to have fun and help Marc PR. Unfortunately, my body wasn’t wanting to race at all. I wasn’t able to start out fast and Marc was gone by mile 2. I just tried to follow someone to draft off of, but much of the race was ran by myself. I was in third for about 4 miles or so, then was passed. I didn’t plan on a podium finish, and wasn’t looking to race, nor was my body. I just fell into an easy pace, and tried not to focus on my pain in my high hamstring (which has crept into my left leg now).

I stopped to pee before the turn around at mile 6. At the turn around I cheered on my hubby and my friend who was leading the women. I thought third place was long gone. The hardest miles were miles 8-10. I just wanted to walk and was feeling noodle legs, which was weird because that’s never happened in a half marathon before. I finally grabbed some water and kept on chugging.

The third place female was in my sights and I was slowly gaining ground on her. I kept chugging along, and started to push the pace a little. Stopped to pee again….okay old lady bladder. I thought I could catch third place, and eventually I did right before mile 11. I was feeling a little jolt of energy. I kept increasing the pace, as I had died down around mile 8. I increased the distance between us, and was thinking “cool I’ll win some prize money, and I wasn’t even planning on it.”

The times were much slower this year, as I was second place last year with a 1:24 and some change, and this year I ended up second place with a 1:31:21. I hit 1/2 a mile to go, but looked behind me and realized third was a ways away, so felt no motivation to kick it in. I crossed the line and found out I was second female, because my friend had dropped out with a foot injury. I didn’t know this until I received my award.

So I started the race with a “just finish” attitude and have fun, and ended up with a podium finish. Marc PR’d but missed the sub 1:30 by 14 seconds. The course was a little long though. My watch said 13.2, so I told him he would have gone sub 1:30 if it was 13.1. I was proud of him. He said he felt good during the race.

The rain started after our cool down and we grabbed our awards. Thankfully we missed the worst of the rain and wind during the race.

Not bad for coming off an injury and the start of our race year. Here’s to more races…….

Until Next Time Be Whole and Be Fit