great bay half

dear capstone photography,
i know you say its strictly prohibited to use your photos but ive already purchased it. so please dont arrest me.
love, me

this is by far one of the best race photos ive had in a long time, so i needed to share and i couldnt wait until it arrives in the mail (yes, im one of those people that buy the extremely overpriced race photos for my marathons and half marathons. feel free to make fun of me, i dont care).

im flying!

last sunday i ran the great bay half marathon in newmarket, nh. i hadnt planned on running it until about 2 weeks prior since i didnt have my work schedule yet (and i decided i wasnt going to ask for the day off). it all worked out though, and ty even decided to join in the fun and run the simultaneous 5k! we had a bunch of friends join us down there and it made for a great day.

chad, a good friend of ours (check out his blog... http://chadwik66.blogspot.com/) really wanted to beat me, but of course i wasnt going to let that happen! i hadnt wanted to race this half, but if i had to, so be it. chad's sister-in-law, erin, was also running the half, her husband brett, their parents, and ty were doing the 5k. i ended up meeting up with a girlfriend i went to college with (and havent seen since then!) and we all walked to the starting line together. i also saw patti and jim, friends from daily mile and local races. such great people!!

the weather wasnt as warm as it was last year but i definitely over dressed. the race started and i took off, and got to mile 1 at 8:06, much faster than i wanted to start. mile 2 and 3 were consistent with 8:25's, which was more what i wanted. at mile 5 i met up with the 8:30 pacer, jimmy. i checked my watch with his and we were right on with 42:10. miles 3-6 are on a dirt path which was full of frost heaves and pot holes, so it was frustrating to have to constantly look down, but before i knew it we were back on the pavement and i was feeling great. i had already dumped my gloves along the side of the road and i took my outer layer off before mile 4. the wind was pretty strong but it was warming up nicely.

miles 6-8 flew by, despite the hills from hell (i know these hills arent going to even compare to what ive got coming to me in october, but im trying not to think about that just yet). right before mile 10 we turn onto a down and back and ty, brett, kelly, and scott were there to cheer us on. that really pumped me up and i was able to drop off my outer shell which was driving me nuts tied around my waist. 

 speedy mc fast, trying to finish strong

 chad knows im up there, trying to catch up so he can beat me

 erin had the same idea i did, less clothes makes you faster!

the last 3 miles my knees started to get sore but i knew i was on pace to get a pretty good time, so i kept pushing. the pic from the beginning of this post was right before mile 11. lookin good, right? hehe. at right around mile 12 eric ran up next to me and introduced himself. yay! it was fun to chat with him for a minute or so and then it was time for me to really give it all i had. they changed the end of the course last year so that there was a downhill finish, but they still had one last killer hill before that last stretch.

 college friend sarah with her boyfriend/pacer jim

here comes those purple pants!

 im smiling cuz i see two people ahead of me that dont know im coming

(i passed them both right before the finish!)

 chad coming in strong

 wooo hooo erin!
(and me on the left cheering her on)

chad was still able to smile post race despite being crushed by a girl

although i was 55 seconds shy of my half marathon PR, i still got a PR for the course, and its a tough course to do that for sure! 2011 final time: 1:52:18! (past years: 2010- 1:58:15, 2009- 2:01:17, 2008- 1:59:45)
i was super pleased with myself and with all runners out there :) i know i could have run another 13.1 miles but definitely am not in shape yet to have kept up the pace... and even if i could keep my pace i would still be over 4 minutes slow for a BQ. maybe someday, like when im 45.