Mercedes Half Marathon 2013

I was very hesitant to register for a half marathon the weekend immediately following my full marathon, but I’m so glad that I did. Mercedes has always been my favorite race and I really didn’t want to miss running it for the 4th year in a row.

I’ve been babying my right foot since Mississippi River Marathon. The top of my foot is what has been hurting oddly enough. I looked back through my DailyMile posts from my previous marathons though and realized that I complained of exactly the same thing before. Realizing that I have had this similar pain before that worked itself out over time actually made me feel better and gave me confidence going in to this race. Still I intentionally ran very few miles this past week leading up to the race to rest my body and my foot as much as possible.

I ended having the best time! Saturday night I went out to dinner at Surin West, per my pre-Mercedes protocol with my hubby, Drew and Kate, and our new friends Lauren and Tim. After dinner I had a drink with my high school friend Crystal, who I’ve reconnected with through running after over a decade!

Race morning was coooooold! But still not as cold as the 17 degrees or so at last years race.

I’m noticing that the more races I do, the less pictures I take. I really didn’t get any good pre-race group photos this year. The only thing I have for you is this gem of me and Duane. I don’t even quite remember what was going on here … it was early, and cold.

My friend, Drew, and I ran this one together. We started off at an easy comfortable pace for the first couple of miles (8:44 and 8:03). I was feeling really great though and wanted to push the pace a little. By the third mile we had dropped well below an 8 min pace and managed to stay there for the rest of the race.

The whole thing was kind of a blur, a really really fun blur. And then it was over.

My official time was 1:40:55. I kind of wish I had pushed those first two miles harder, because I feel certain I would have beat my PR if my first 2 miles had matched the rest of them. But truly .. who cares? I had a BLAST!

After the race we headed into the Boutwell Auditorium and chowed down on some Jim n Nick’s sandwiches … and beer.

As we were eating the Jim n Nick’s table directly behind where we were sitting caught on fire. Under the burners were burlap runners, which flamed up good. It looked like the whole auditorium was about to go up in smoke. I looked around and saw thousands of people and realized if there was a stampede I would be at the back of the pack. So, I stood up and started to lead that stampede when thankfully they got the fire out. Whew!

I headed back out to the finish line area to watch as several of my friends who were doing the full marathon finished their races and then 13 of us headed to Flip Burger Boutique for lunch.

I got the Smaller, a sampler of 3 miniature burgers, sautéed brussel sprouts with ginger and bacon and fried B&B pickles. It was way too much food! I had to pass it to the hubby to finish off, but oh my god … I will forever cook my brussels with ginger and bacon now.

We stopped by The Cheesecake Factory after lunch and picked up this piece of diabeetus to go …

Clearly I was on my best behavior eating-wise the whole weekend.

Besides the sugar coma that ensued on the way home, it was a ridiculously amazing weekend. We had tons of fun, there were several PRs set and goals achieved and it was magical to be a part of and watch as so many people accomplished their goals. (Hubby PR-ed by 7 minutes!)

The icing on the [cheese]cake was adding my 4th Mercedes Medal to my “Wall of Awesome”!

I cannot wait until next year!