Bombshell Antics: My only goal was to finish.

Miami Half Marathon Recap

I've only done three half marathons and we can safely say, yesterday was the one that truly tested me. Maybe it was my fault. I didn't run but about twice in the past two weeks after my long run of 11 miles. I went into this thinking it was just going to be another long run, no biggie. It helped to keep the nerves at bay. However, my body was not having it on Sunday. From the get go, I wasn't really feeling super duper excited but I knew I had to start and finish so by the time it was my corrals time to go (30 mins after the actual start o_O - this is by far the largest race I've ever been too. Over 25K people!! Over 15K in the half!) I was feeling fine. I was ready to see the cruise ships and beautiful Miami-ness as I ran across the highway.

A couple of the sites.

The highway I was nervous about because of the hills. About .45(or less) into the race we (the half marathoners) encounter our biggest hill and it honestly wasn't as bad as I imagined it to be. Maybe because it was so early on and my legs were still fresh. Our next hill was on the same high way about 3 miles in. That wasn't too too bad either. I was still feeling good around these times. My pace was fine and I felt maybe just maybe I would finish around the same time as my other half mary's.

2nd Hill
Side note: There was about 5/6 hills. 2/3 were really mini.

Well around Mile 7 I begin to really get tired. Then somewhere around Mile 8 and 9 my left quad wasn't feeling this race at all and started cramping up. I tried stopping a few times to stretch it and it helped for a bit then would come back. So more walking started to happen. Then during mile 10 my right foot started doing some kind of weird cramping as well. It was bad that I could fell it curling up every so often when I picked it up. So more walking. Mile 11 was my favorite mile. They were giving out pineapples!!

And then to top it off I ran into my personal cheer group. One of my be sties and my Godsister! I didn't know they were going to be in that area and when I saw them I even stopped for a picture. It was more so because my leg was cramping and I was in pain and could use the 20 sec break!

I started back and boy I was thinking how can I make it these next few miles. Less than 1.5 to go now. I stopped to stretch and walk a little more again before reaching mile 12. I sent out a fb status that I was still pushing but was in pain!

Love the encouragements!

I started back up and reached mile 12 and then probably about .2 into it I started walking again to ease the leg and foot cramps. Long and behold one of my big sisters in running came running up to me. She too was cramping and only God knows how much we needed each other at that point. We started back running and silently pushed each other the next .9. When we crossed the finish line we were both so relieved and said how much we wanted to stop but because we were there with one another we didn't!