Yippee me!

I just finished the Kaiser Permanente Half-Marathon!

My final time was 2:40. I beat my time from last year by almost 20 minutes!

I had a great time during the run and was doing about a 10 minute mile once I hit my stride. Not really a good thing, since I normally do about a 15 minute mile. I started cramping at around mile 7 and decided to push through it. It got worse at mile 8, but still I pushed through it.

In between mile 8 and 9, I took a detour and went to the restroom. I had to hop off the road and over to the other side of the street. I never knew how hard it was to lift up your legs those few inches. I immediately started getting the mother of all cramps and hobbled over to the restroom.

I did my duty and was on my way out when another runner, he had a running number on his shirt, asked me how it's going. I thought this was really weird. For one, I get really focused on the race and anything outside of the race, such as running, drinking my fluids, not stepping on any holes/obstacles, etc, will throw me off. Second, I'm limping, how do you THINK I'm doing?

I answered that I'm in pain and limped out of there and back across the road. I was able to walk off the cramp and continued at a respectable speed. I hit the last turn at the end of the road and started heading back to the finish line. Seeing all the people that were behind me really made me feel good. Just last year, I was one of these people in the back and the course was being closed after I passed it. I felt great!

I was headed up the hill towards the last turn before reaching the finish line. I decided to try running again. That wasn't going to happen. I started getting a charleyhorse and intense pain started to shoot up through my legs. I decided that I was not going to finish the race and NOT be able to move. So I decided to finish the race walking.

Scott was there at the finish line waiting for me :)