Off on the run and I felt GOOD.  Like ‘woah’ good.  My legs felt fresh and ready to go and my first mile was at 8:27 and felt effortless.  I immediately thought of how things went at the Illinois Half Marathon and how I blew up at mile 7 so I was trying to monitor my heart rate and exertion so that this time I wouldn’t blow up.  

First mile done and feeling good!

Mile 2 was close to the same pace and mile 3.  Oh my.  This could go really well or really bad…but I felt so good I didn’t want to slow down.  I did walk the aid stations which helped, and also the since the temps were high 70’s also was a HUGE help.  If it had been in the 90’s I really doubt I would have had the same run.

Still going…

…and going

I saw JMR several times on the course which was awesome – I love that guy, he was an awesome sherpa and photog….he took *awesome* photos.

Headed out for the second loop.

There isn’t too much to report on the run…in retrospect I think that maybe I could have pushed it harder but at the time, mentally, I didn’t want to… I guess I really need to work on mental toughness, because once I hit mile 8, I was really struggling.

Yeah…was starting to finally feel it.

But… as the miles went by I was able to see what time on the run I might finish (at this point I had no idea what total race time was), and thought 2 hours sounded awesome in my mind since my last half I did the run in 2:10.  I had slowed down at parts during the last five miles but kept telling myself ‘if you keep doing x:xx, you can still finish until 2 hours’ so I kept pushing and moving.  

Nearing the finish…

Before I knew it I was .5 miles away…and I wanted to walk…but I kept moving….and then I heard the announcer and the finished line and kicked it in overdrive, like, moving my ass as fast as it could and passed two people.

The final kick to the finish!

 I thought I was hauling butt, however after seeing the video JMR took, I look like I’m out for a Sunday jog, oh well 🙂

Overall I finished the swim three minutes faster than my best swim, my bike was definitely not a PR (darn those hills and my also still being very cautious on the bike since the crash), and the run was a huge pr.  Total time it was 6:00:59…PR compared to 6:07 at Redman in 2012.  I so would have hauled ass in transition if I had known I was that close to breaking 6 hours!!  Lesson learned, keep moving because you never know what can happen!

Happy with a new PR

Overall I LOVED this race, not just because I had a PR but because of how well it was run and how AWESOME the roads were.  I’m sorry OKC but your roads are downright dangerous, these roads were paved and marked well and I really appreciated that!

I might just have to come back to do this race again 🙂  Until then….onto IMLOU training…:)