Cowboy Hazel

I ran the best race of my life today, smashing my old half-marathon P.R. (set last month) by over four minutes! My final time was 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 20 seconds – a 6:53 pace! I am still so surprised and overwhelmed... I'm having trouble believing that it actually happened.

It shouldn't have happened, not today anyway. Everything was against me. I woke up severely congested and with a nasty sinus headache. I was coughing in the subway and got winded as we climbed the stairs out of the station. On top of that, it was unusually warm and the course that everyone said was flat was actually full of giant hills. I started too fast (as always) but somehow, the big crash that always follows never found me...

At each mile marker, I did the math and learned that I was still staying under seven minute miles. The realization that I could actually achieve my goal began to set in about mile 8 and provided a huge boost. Another boost came slightly earlier at the turnaround where I saw my friends Antonio and Sarah only about a minute ahead of me. (They both finished sub-1:30:00 and Sarah was actually the fourth female finisher overall. Congrats to her!) The last couple miles were fun. I still had a little left in the tank and picked up the pace a bit. It's such a good feeling to be able to do this.

I'm in pain again now, though. My nose started running again and my body is just achy all over. I think I need to make a doctor appointment if I'm not feeling better by tomorrow. I am just so sick of being sick.

Well, halftime is almost over, so I'm going to get back to the game. Go Jets!