obligatory race report

A week ago Mike and I went to run the Inaugural Rock n Roll marathon and 1/2 marathon in San Antonio. Mike ran the full marathon and his sister and I ran the 1/2 marathon. We all started training in August and updated each other on our progress over the course of the last few months. We got to SAT on Friday afternoon and went for a short run, then had big ol' spaghetti dinner with the whole family. Saturday, we just stayed off our feet and ate more pasta. The race was on Sunday and you couldn't ask for more perfect marathon weather. It was crisp and cool, about 34 at the start. After some serious logistical hiccups and a whole lot of stress getting to the start (50 minutes to drive one mile!), we got there just in time to shed our warm-ups and get to the starting area. I don't know about the other runners, but once I started running I was totally over the pre-race choas. Sure, I felt like I forgot how to run having taken that last 3 weeks pretty easy due to an injury, but the course was great, I enjoyed the rock n roll atmosphere and music and I hoped to pick up the pace after the first 3 miles. I always take a long time to feel warmed up - 3 miles to be exact - but I didn't want to do any jogging prior to the half marathon nor did I have time to do so..... anyway, my hip was really stiff and I just had a lot of trouble getting my legs to turnover any faster. Up until my injury, training was going pretty well for me, but I have to admit by the time the race approached I had kind of lost my mental focus. I had given myself permission not to try in the race and it's a reuben. I trained "very hard" according my training plan from Runner's World Smart Coach and I had it in me physically to go a lot faster, but mentally I gave up. I know there are lots of excuses, like it just wasn't my day, I had an injury, blah, blah, blah, but I ran it anyway and I should have tried a little harder. Oh well. Despite my disappointment in well, myself, I still managed to enjoy the race and the day overall. I liked the course and as I said the weather couldn't be beat. The family affair aspect was fun too. We all got to hang out at the finish together and my nieces and nephew were so excited. They wanted to wear our space blankets and race numbers. Mike burned up the course with his speediness so we had lots to celebrate at the finish line.