Emerald City 1/2 Marathon

I registered for the Emerald City Half Marathon a couple months ago and was using it to gauge where I was at in terms of my training for Columbus Marathon in October. I knew I wouldn't PR at this race since I hadn't run a lot in the past couple weeks because of our wedding and honeymoon.

Friday night, Todd & I drove over to Fleet Feet to pick up my race packet and imagine my surprise when I saw who was there! I knew Kathrine Switzer was going to be there the next day but she was also there on Friday night too.

A picture of Kathrine during the 1967 Boston Marathon when Jock Semple, the race director tried to rip her bib number off, but Kathrine went on to become the first woman to ever finish the Boston Marathon

Kathrine & I along with my signed copy of her book

Race morning I was a little nervous....it had stormed a lot the night before and was supposed to rain that morning, I knew I hadn't run a ton the past couple weeks (and in fact, hadn't run a double digit run in 3 weeks), and I had sat outside in 95 degree weather the day before to watch the OSU football game and was probably dehydrated. My A goal was to break 1:40, my B goal was to run under 1:42(what I ran in the half marathon in May), and my C goal was to break 1:45.

Before the race

Sprinting to the finish

Almost there!

I made it!

The stats

Mile 1: 7:31 (This is right where I wanted to be for the first mile)

Mile 2: 7:36

Mile 3: 7:32 (Feeling good, breathing under control)

Mile 4: 7:50 (Little uphill going into Glacier Ridge Metro Park)

Mile 5: 7:48

Mile 6: 7:38 (The course was out and back so we turned around at 6.55 miles)

Mile 7: 7:38 (The humidity is starting to get to me now)

Mile 8: 7:56

Mile 9: 7:58

Mile 10: 7:42 (Happy I haven't run over an 8 min/mi yet)

Mile 11: 8:29 (Ok, I spoke too soon, definitely dehydrated, had to stop and walk through the last 2 water stops to make sure I was actually drinking enough)

Mile 12: 8:22

Mile 13: 7:52 (Finish strong!)

Overall time for 13.1 miles: 1:43:38

Average pace: 7:54

Overall: 104/727
Females: 15/360
Females 25-29: 4/54

**According to my Garmin, I ran 13.23 miles in 7:50 pace

Todd & I after the race

Luckily, the rain held off the whole race and the course itself was pretty nice. There was also a quarter marathon being run at the same time but they split off at mile 3 and then picked us back up around mile 10 or 11. We ran the majority of the race in Glacier Ridge Metro Park which made for nice scenery but there were a few rolling hills I wasn't expecting. I started to get goosebumps around mile 7 or 8 and knew it'd be a long rest of the race after that. The rain had held off but it was extremely humid. I was right on pace to break 1:40 until about mile 9 . I started to get really dehydrated around this point and stopped to walk through a few water stops to make sure I was drinking enough gatorade. I was happy I was able to pick it up a bit on the last mile but slightly disappointed my overall time wasn't faster. With that being said, I'm glad I enjoyed my wedding and honeymoon and didn't spend too much time running then. I still have 6 weeks to the marathon and know that if I put in some hard work in the next few weeks, my goal of breaking 3:30 (8 min pace) will definitely happen.