Ok… so I didn’t get to train for the half-marathon like I wanted to. My opinion is, once you have run a marathon, you can run anything. I am not sure about another whole marathon, and I’m not about to try it, but a half is a piece of cake!!! …sorta.
For those of you who have run a half marathon ever in your life: kudos. Seriously. That is a long way! 21 kilometers (13.2 miles) is really one heck of a long way. It was my 6th (I think) half-marathon and I’ll tell you that it really never gets any easier. I had a goal (implemented by my new British running partner – Dave) of 1 hour and 45 minutes. That is fast. And 8 minute mile. Some of you think that an 8 minute mile is not fast but when you are running 13 of them consecutively – IT IS. I started the race with Dave and another co-worker, Carolyn. The good thing was that Dave is a real encourager. He was not going to let Carolyn slow down. This is good and bad. Good because it’s real nice of him and I enjoy running with people. Bad because the person he is encouraging, hates him. I mean, not literally, but they really probably do have some feelings of this. When you are running with people who are faster than you, you don’t want to slow them down and so you try to keep up. This is not a good thing when running long distances like this ‘cause the whole time you are thinking, “JUST GO. LEAVE ME. PLEASE. Then I can run this dumb thing at my own, relaxed pace.” I know this is what they are thinking because I have been there many times (Kris and Christie I know you can both attest to this). So, at the 10k mark we were at 58 minutes. Too slow for Dave’s goal. At the 13k mark, we let Carolyn rest in peace. We took off. Fast. I was fine until we had to go up an overpass. My theory on hills is that they are an opportunity to pass everyone. Everyone hates them and slows down. I charge up them ‘cause I figure this is when you are going to catch the most people and make up some time. Well today, it killed me. I got up it in great time. But the downhill I thought I might actually die. So at this time, I very sternly told Dave to please move on. (Kris and Christie, again, you have experienced this sterness – heehee) Very sternly because I was having the same feelings that Carolyn may have been having just a few k back. So he left me. About 2 minutes later, I felt (the course was not marked real well at this point) a second wind. I was able to finish pretty strongly though I couldn’t catch Dave at this point. I think he probably finished 45 seconds ahead of me. I finished in 2:00:45. Not bad – 11k in 63 minutes. Picked it up in the latter half. I’ll take that. I hung out with some of the other XOM folks afterward and headed home. The best part of running a race like that happens later this afternoon: taking a HOT shower, getting your warm PJ’s on, fixing a chicken sandwhich and taking a nap on a full stomach. The BEST! All and all a successful day. Carolyn is talking about touring around Europe to run some more. I’m in. Coast of Belgium in October and Italy in November. Love it. And Dave still wants to hit that 1:45 this year. I think we’ll have another chance in Budapest.
Some say running for two hours does not sound like fun. I can’t really say why it is…. but it is. If you don’t want to try ever… I’ll let you trust me. 
