2011 Akron Half Marathon

I really can't remember the day the conversation started, I think it was back in July when I was training for the Rev3 Half in july. I think it went like this... Hey I am gonna run the Akron Half Marathon this year, you think you might want to run it with me? Did you know that there is a vegetarian restaurant in Akron? Hey If you run it with me I'll buy you lunch there. So you want to run Akron with me? Half Marathon?, lunch? you in? Little did Kirsten know she had me from, 'you want to run a half marathon with me?' I played if off for a little bit and told her I was in. Why wouldn't I want to run a half marathon and get free lunch from a really cool vegetarian restaurant. Duh, I am crazy but not stupid. As my Triathlon year went by I decided that the Rev3 just wasn't going to happen this year. I did decide to keep training for it, then pickup on Kirsten's schedule for the half. I think that most of my sunday long runs I ran with Kirsten, she's a great pacer and the conversation is killer. Two weeks before Akron I had a 10k trail race that I PRed and gave me a good feeling about a sub 2 hour half marathon. (that was our goal for Akron). The week before Akron we ran a 5 mile race and both PRed! You can read about it here. So I knew we both could run our first sub 2 hour half.

Nice face dude!

The day before we met up and headed to Akron for the race expo to grab our race bibs and hopefully some new gear. The expo was ahhh... so so. The thing I learned the most is when looking for gear/clothes bring a shopping girl! After ten minutes of searching threw a huge pile of last years gear for a medium jacket, someone pointed out the one on display! SCORE it was a medium. Thanks shopper girl! After the expo we got some quick pictures out side the expo and headed out for some food.

The next morning came really quick, like 3:45am quick. I was picking up Kirsten at 4:20am then we were driving to Kelly's house. Kelly offered to drive us and be the official photographer and cheer person. I think she just really want to hang out with two really cool people, or was it that we were going to a kick ass vegetarian restaurant? We got there about an hour before the 7:00 start so we had plenty of time to hang out and take some photos... Well they took photos, I am not a big photo person. Around 6:40 we started to line up in front of the 3:50 pace group. I figured we could hang out in front of them we would be sure to get that sub 2 hour half.
The first mile is always a crowded slow mile, we ran it in 9:08. Mile two and three it started to clear out a little bit and we feel into our running Mojo grove, 8:54 and 8:48. The thing I remember the most in the first three miles was a lady in a wheel chair, she was doing the first leg of the relay race! I think it was 3.5 miles! Its so crazy to see people like that, it makes you so proud of them. Just remember that when your doing a 3.5 miler and you feel like you can't finish. This strong lady did it in a wheelchair!

Miles 4,5 and 6 we ran 8:37, 8:44 and 8:37. I was wearing the Garmin and was giving Kirsten time updates. I think I lied about a 100 times, telling her that we were just doing ok but we were going to have to hit it hard in the last 3-4 miles. Miles 7 8:55 and 8 9:01were the tuff ones for two miles we ran up hill. It felt like it would never end. As soon as we hit the peek it would let up for a couple hundred yards then turn a corner and go right back up. I love my hills, but man it was killer
towards the end. I was once again amazed with
Kirsten that she was right beside me pushing it

Last Mile

Mile 9 was a great gift almost all down hill! We ran it in 8:36. Mile 10 was once more a short up hill battle! I think we were both done with these damn hills 8:47.

From 10 to about 11.25 it was a huge down hill! one of those were you want to go crazy fast down it. we ran it in 8:16. Then the last killer up hill it was so crazy hard to be strong and keep running, if i was alone I might of walked it some. 9:36. When we got to the top of the hill I looked a the Garmin and new we had it in the bag. The last mile we got back on pace and hit it hard one last time, running it in 8:47. Finishing in 1:56:00.
It has been a really big goal of mine for awhile to finish under 2 hours. I am just so happy I got to do it with my friend in need from the Cleveland Marathon.

The Best Part