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2012 Rock ‘n Roll San Antonio Race Recap
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2012 Rock ‘n Roll San Antonio Race Recap

My alarm went of at 5:15am on Saturday morning. Of course I didn’t sleep very well the night before knowing that I was going to have to get up early to do something important. {does this happen to anyone else?!?} Lucky for me, I’m one of those people that jumps right up at the sound of my alarm. And once I’m up, I’m up. I scurried along to the bathroom to get ready as quick as possible. By 5:45am Julie and I were all ready with peanut butter bagels and bananas in hand.
Can you tell how early it is? Our eyes don’t really wanna open 🙂 We were also super lucky because the hubs was kind enough to get his bootie out of bed to drop us off close to the start line so we didn’t have to bother with parking and what not. So we were out the door by 5:50am to pick up Julie’s cousin Jay and head to the race!

After waiting in line forever in the most inconveniently located port-o-potties, we headed our separate ways to find our respective corrals! I was in Corral 4 with several of my Runner’s High buds! I’m so glad I was able to start the race out with them…didn’t quite finish with them, but we’ll get there later.

Ready to Rock ‘n Roll! About 3 minutes after the official start time, it was time for my corral to take off {we take off in a waved start in order to avoid mass chaos and it helps to keep people with similar speeds together.}

When we started at 7:30am it was definitely a warm nearly 70 degrees. Not ideal race weather by any means. Despite the toasty temps, I was prepared to rock this run. I started out strong with Scott, Shawn and Jet from my running club. Around Mile 6, I stopped to walk through the water station in order to actually drink my Gatorade instead of pouring it down my shirt and inhaling it through my nose. At that point it had gotten significantly hotter and I knew that if I didn’t slow my pace down, my lungs would give out on me. So I didn’t try to catch up and continued on solo.

Around Mile 7 or so, I saw my friend Alex! Or really, I saw her sign and ‘Whooped’ at it, then she realized it was me! Though she says she can’t take credit for the cleverness, she was holding the best sign I saw! “If the Aggies can beat ‘Bama, you can finish this race!” Awesome right? At Mile 8, I saw the hubs! Ready and waiting to take a picture, hand over my inhaler and cheer me on!

I was so excited  to see him for a few reasons. (1) It’s always great to see your loved ones out on the course. It gives me an extra boost and makes me realize how much support I have. (2) He had my inhaler. I needed it. Bad. (3) At mile 8 I knew I only had 5 more to go! So I slowed to a brisk walk, blew a kiss at my honey, took a honk of my inhaler and was on my merry way.

Around Mile 9 is when the heat of the day started to effect me. I’m asthmatic. Obviously, hence the inhaler. Running is a serious instigator of my asthma, but I run anyway. The warmer or more humid the day is, the harder it is for me to breathe. This is why I ran so well up North! It was easier on my lungs. Unfortunately, my lungs couldn’t hold up at the pace I was going for 4 more miles. I had to walk some, so I did. For the remainder of the race, I walked and ran. I walked more than I would have liked, but I knew that it was best for me. Mile 11 was great because there were tons of Air Force service men and women with ice cold sponges! Talk about a relief for this sweaty girl! I also loved that at each water station they had hoses to spray everyone down. Awesome. Eventually, I saw the infamous hill and the Mile 13 marker. Knowing that the finish line was just up the hill and around the corner kept me jogging up the hill

Believe it or not, I made it! It was hot, humid, too sunny, miserable at some points, but I somehow managed to finished my 10th half marathon in 2:02:22, in less than ideal conditions. Not my best time. Not my worst time. It is a pretty cool time though. That’s a lot of twos.

When I first finished the race, I was slightly disappointed in my time. Don’t get me wrong. I know it was great, but I knew that I could have done better. I’m a perfectionist. It’s in my nature. However, looking back, I couldn’t be more proud. It was a rough day for racing and I still pushed through and did a great job. So did all of my friends! Julie’s brother {Jake}, sister-in-law {Danielle} and cousin {Jay}, all ran the race as well and did a fantastic job. I’m so proud of us all! Way to rock it my loves 🙂

Sorry this post was a little wordy, but I do love my race recaps! It’s a great way to look back, see how I felt, how I finished and how I can improve physically and mentally in my running career.

Next race, Sugar Land Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving followed by the Sugar Land Finish Line Sports 30K on December 9th!

Have you done any races recently or are you training for one now? Want to get started running? Feel free to message me, I’d love to talk to you about it. It’s not always easy getting started, but once you figure out why you’re doing it, it gets easier and more fun each and every day!

Until next time…
With love and God bless,

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