First 1/2 marathon - Germantown, TN - 3/16/08

Last Sunday, I got up at the crack of dawn to go run my very first 1/2 marathon, the Germantown 1/2 marathon. I have been training for 12 weeks, along with my two neighbors, Wendy and Elizabeth. The previous weekend, I ran an 8 minute mile, 10-miler, felt very good afterwards and thought I was set for the following Sunday. However, during the week coming up to the race, I ran 5 miles one day and 4 miles the following one and didn't feel good about either runs.

On Saturday night, we picked up our race numbers and then headed to Macaroni Grill to carb-up (and drink up!). At the expo, after picking up our race numbers, we found out in which corral we should place ourselves based on average running pace. W. and E. were in corral D, according to my last long run, it looked like I should be in corral A. I probably will never hear the end of that one! "You people in corral A...", actually my running partners were more upset by the fact that the chart explaining where everyone should place themselves on the starting line, showed pretty colors for corrals A, B and C but that corral D apparently didn't even deserve its own color: it was in a meek gray!

I managed to go to bed at a decent hour but didn't sleep much. I am not used to getting up at the crack of dawn and I was questioning my alarm-setting abilities. I got up before the alarm went off, got ready and waited for Wendy to pick me up. We went and got Elizabeth and headed for the race. While still in the car, we started a game of "real" or "fake", trying to size up our competition, guessing who was a real runner based on their attire. I was getting more nervous by the minute. W. and E. headed to the bathroom before the race and I sat in the hall, looking around me and feeling more and more inadequate. Everyone looked so serious and so professional. I felt like I had "AMATEUR" tattooed on my forehead.

We headed for our respective corrals, my stomach was in a knot. We got some instructions from the race organizers, got to listen to the national anthem... apparently they didn't get the memo that a Swiss was in the crowd. Good thing I wasn't planning on winning the race, or we'd have another Swiss anthem/flag issue, like at the New York marathon in 1997 when Franzkiska Moser-Rochat ended up on the podium with no Swiss flag nor anthem!

And there goes the crazy part: I ran 13.1 miles! Yup... 13.1 miles non-stop, over 21 km.

The first and last three miles were the toughest. The first three miles were uphill and the last three miles were hard because they were never ending. Oh and did I mention that the race organizers thought it would be brilliant to have the last .5 miles uphill? It almost killed me!

I made it though and Anthony, India and Kai surprised me at the finish line. I looked up while some lady was trying to cut off my race chip off my shoe and there they were! :)

I ran my first 1/2 marathon in 1hr48min and finished 12th in my age group. Not bad for an amateur!