Another 1/2 marathon

Last weekend, I ran my 4th 1/2 marathon. The Heels & Hills in Las Colinas. I wasn't really looking forward to it since I didn't feel like I was on top of my game. I had been running since my full marathon but I hadn't been extremely serious about it.

I nearly missed the start of the race because this Swiss apparently still doesn't know the difference between am and pm. Funny enough my alarm didn't go off at 5:30 am since it was set for pm. I woke up at 6 in a panic. Not a good start...

I headed over to Las Colinas with no breakfast, had a difficult time finding a parking spot, got my bib and ran into a bunch of friends (guys) that were pacing the race in skirts. They looked hilarious. Some of them had taken their mission very seriously! I ended up with two extra shirts (the one I had on and the shirt I got for showing up to the race) and car keys I needed to get rid of for the race. Thankfully, I saw that a friend was taking pictures at the finish line so I stuck  all my junk with his stuff!

We all lined up at the start line and CZ and I found ourselves with the Steve's. Steve P stuck with CZ and GQ ended up pacing me.

Oh before, I continue, I need to point out that the race was on Sunday morning. On Friday night, Anthony and I went out with some friend of ours. We were playing poker and drinking until 1 am. I didn't go to bed until 3 am. I napped on Saturday in the middle of the day, which meant that I wasn't tired when it was time to go to bed... and then the whole alarm clock fiasco happened. Now back to regular program:

When I realized that I was dehydrated - I am talking about the pasty mouth, feeling like you have a bunch of flower in your mouth kind of dehydrated - before mile 1 and then looked down at my Garmin and saw that we were running a sub 7 min mile. I figured I'd be cooked before mile 5! Obviously, I had forgotten who was pacing me... he wouldn't let me get away with anything. He just pushed the pace and dragged me through 13.1. He asked me to make sure to stay focused, not to cheer for the other runners - unlike at the 1/2 on the same course last October - and to stay on his shoulder. GQ ended up being my water boy, my mouth piece - he'd thank the runners shouting "good job!" for me and a great pacer. He didn't allow me to speak but kept talking during the entire race, giving me encouragement, kicking my butt when I needed it and placing target on runners in front of me and pushing me to "wheel them in".

I crossed the finish line in 1:33:20, a 7:07 pace. Who knew? I thought a 7:30 wouldn't be possible. A PR by 9 minutes! Couldn't be happier! :)