low expectations

My quest for sleep is still ongoing....

Todd was scheduled to fly in to town on Thursday evening, but due to delayed flights in Seattle, de-icing in Denver, and a diversion to Omaha, he finally arrived early Friday morning around 2 a.m. Combine that with a 5:30 alarm this morning for the half marathon, and an early rise tomorrow to get him to the airport for an 8 a.m. flight, i am not getting caught up on my beauty sleep.

Since last night was a pre-race meal, I had to be careful about where we went out to eat. Not being a huge fan of pasta, I suggested that we get somewhere for sushi. We went to Kyoto japanese steakhouse and i ordered chicken teriyaki with assorted sushi. Protein, veggies, rice....that's a solid combination for raceday nutrition. Unless....the assorted sushi ends up being assorted sashimi (the raw fish on rice) instead of the rolls like i was expecting.

Oh well, its fish and rice, that's still good stuff...so i ate it. And then i felt tummyachey afterwards.

Yet another reason my sleep was not too pleasant.

But by the time we got to the start, i was feeling good. The forecast called for 60% chance of rain, and it was a bit chilly waiting for the gun, but once the race began, i was glad i opted to wear shorts and a sleeveless top. Stupid Kansas mugginess. And stupid Kansas wind (at least it was at our backs for the last 4 miles).

The course was actually decent, hardly any hills and the hills that were present were just tiny ones.
The things I didn't like about the race were:
1. Running the 5K, 15K, and half marathoners all together. At the beginning, this messed with my pace b/c being mixed in with runners who are all going different distances, my competitive nature took over so i was running a faster pace to keep up. I told myself to slow down after the first half mile, b/c i still had over 12 miles to go, not 2 miles.
2. The out-and-back part around the Great Mall of the Great Plains was windy and long. Thankfully, i had Todd and my brother out there cheering for me and the way that part of the course was set up, I got to run by them 3 times. And i also got to see my pal Courtney as we were crossing paths on the loop, she's always a bundle of cheer and super supportive.
3. The finish was uphill. No other explanation needed.

But overall, i liked this half marathon quite a bit, it definitely helped that i had a great support staff out there cheering me on. (THANK YOU guys)

i went into the race just aiming for a sub-2 hour, not feeling quite as ready as I have been for my prior half marathons. And oh what a pleasant surprise when i got myself a little thing we like to call....a PR! see what happens when you have low expectations?

1:47:52 (at 13.1 miles on my Garmin). the finish line registered at 13.4 miles and i haven't seen the official time posted yet, but it will still be a PR regardless.