Half Marathon Weekend

I signed up to do the Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon in San Antonio way back in late spring.  I registered online for the 1/2 marathon and Brian and I booked a hotel. Everything was paid for - no backing out now (yikes!).  I started the 12 week training in August and hurt my knee in week 3.  I had been running  3 miles two to three times a week, but when I started upping the mileage (the first week of training was 15 miles and it just went up from there) i could feel the strain on my knees.  I decided that I would still run, but just back off the mileage and frequency.... which of course decreased my stamina.  So I knew I wasn't ready as I could be, but I knew I could at least finish the race.
Brian and I decided to book Friday and Saturday night so we could have a little bit of a weekend getaway before the half marathon began.  Here we are on the drive down to San Antonio.

I love being with him and the drive was 4 hours for us to just reconnect and have some good conversation.  A pretty sunset on the way...

We checked into the Grand Hyatt (great recommendation Menielle!) and had an awesome view of downtown San Antonio.

On Saturday morning we slept a little late.  When we got up, we realized that we could even see a little chunk of the river walk from our room.

We headed out the convention center right next door for packet pick up.  After getting my shirt (which I will wear every day for a while), bib and all that jazz and checking out the Expo, we headed to lunch.  I had been eating super clean this week and I wanted something GOOD to eat... so we had Mexican food on the River walk. :)  It was FANTASTIC.

We spent Saturday afternoon just hanging out - we watched a movie, did some shopping and went back to the room and even took a little nap!  We met up with the Garners and Doss's for our Italian carb load dinner.  They gave me lots of advice for my first 1/2 that I was very thankful for!  We had a nice time.  That night back at the room I read my next day of my Jesus Calling devotional book.  You can click on the picture below to enlarge it - it was cool, because it was SO what I needed to hear!


I woke up at 6:30 when the music started for the marathon.  Our hotel was right at the starting line, so the music was LOUD.  Brian didn't care for that - he thought he'd be able to sleep in a little. :)  This is the picture from our window with the starting line below. I took this at 6:35.

This was 7:05.

And this was 7:25 just right before the first corral started. LOTS of people...

Here I am after 13.1 miles.  I. Was. Exhausted.  

The race went pretty good for me.  Some of it was better than I thought it would be and some was worse.  It was WAY hotter than I would have liked.  It was already 70 degrees when I started at 7:45.  Ugh.  Mile 1 through 8 went really well.  I was walking more than I would have liked, but it was just so dang hot and I knew I had a ways to go and it was just going to get hotter.  If it was flat, I ran if I could.  I walked at all water stations and made myself drink all the water/Gatorade and I walked up the hills.  But something happened between mile 8 and 9.  My hips started hurting and my feet began to hurt.  Mile 9 my feet were killing me.  I ended up walking almost all of 10 and 11.  I jogged off and on on mile 12... more off than on.  I was in some serious pain at this point.  Right before the finish line, you go up a large hill and then turn the corner and you can see the finish line!  I was hurting and super tired, but I made myself run over the finish.  It was very emotional - I was more tired than I could explain and I couldn't believe I had finished!  My main goal was not running for time, it was just to finish.  If I had to pick a time, I would have liked to finish in under 3 hours, but my official time ended up being 3:16:35.  I was very pleased with that!
And I'm so thankful for these gals who gave me great advice and were so encouraging!  They really helped me make it through!

We slowly made it back to our hotel... I somehow missed the gatorade table on my way out of the food corral and was SO nauseated.  I had to stop a few times and sit down - i just knew I was going to puke.  Luckily I was able to sit and rest a couple of times and didn't have to upchuck in the bushes.  We got back to our room with about 20 minutes to spare before check out.  I grabbed a quick shower and Brian got me some Gatorade. He had babied me today and I really have appreciated that!

It was a good weekend.  I had some good quality time with my husband and checked a big accomplishment off my bucket list!  I think I'm going to go to bed now... and be there for a while. :)