I ran my first Brooklyn Half Marathon on Saturday. It went much better than I expected! My mileage isn't high right now so I was pleasantly surprised to see what I could do. It was a great race...beautiful weather (first day it didn't rain all week).
It was fun to run the race with 10 friends from my New York Athletic Club (NYAC) team. I asked a few of the girls for advice before the race on running a half marathon. They all said don't go out too fast...My coach said the same thing to me...so I took the advice to heart. I ran conservatively the first half of the race which was in Prospect Park. Since I hadn't run a 13.1 mile race before I didn't know what I could do...but after exiting the park and heading out to Coney Island I picked up my pace and ran consistent splits and starting passing people. I felt great the whole way. It was especially great to be so supported there with my parents, Jeremiah and Kenna cheering for me at the 1 mile, 4 mile, and 12 mile mark on the course. It was actually a little emotional for me passing the 12 mile mark where they were cheering loudly for me. I felt so happy to have my family there for me. In these pics I was actually smiling at the 4 mile and 12 mile mark because I was so happy and felt so good inside.
I finished the race in 8th place overall for the women with a time of 1:22:30 and averaged 6:17 min pace. I'm looking forward to getting into my marathon training and running my first marathon in October- a week before Kenna has her first birthday! My goal is to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the marathon which will be held in January of 2012! I will need to run a sub 2:46 marathon...I have a lot of work to put in to reach this goal but I know I can do it! Thank you to all of you for your support and well wishes to me in this endeavor and to my husband and little girl for helping cheer me along everyday! It means so much to me!
4 miles into the race in Prospect Park, Brooklyn
At the 12 mile mark...happy to see my family, happy with how I'm running and looking forward to reaching the finish line!
Hanging with Kenna at the finish on the boardwalk in Coney Island.
Friends on my team, Mia and Heidi