Thank you for all the well wishes and also for all the congratulations via twitter and facebook! You guys are awesome! So to start of the recap, yes I did finish and yes I PR’ed!! Now, let’s get to the story!
John and I woke up a half hour before our alarm went off and I decided it was the perfect time to catch part of Jingle All The Way on the hotel TV. That’s normal, right? We then meandered to the hotel continental breakfast where I toasted my gluten free bread that I packed with me and slathered on some peanut butter and jelly. Then it was back up to our room to get ready and drive the ten minutes to Ohio University.
The race starts right on campus and leads you to a bike trail about 1.5 miles into the race. We’ll get to that later. We posed for some pictures before the race, took a trip to the bathroom for a “safety pee”, and awaited the start of the race which was signaled by OU’s ROTC firing off a scary canon.
Pre-Race Pictures
A Pretend Start
A Quick See-Ya Later Picture
And then the canon went off!! I was super startled!
The race started at 9:00 am and it was nice and sunny out already. It stayed sunny the entire race and I probably could have worn short sleeves.
The first mile was all down hill but I felt like we were going pretty slow down that hill. There was a gradual uphill and then after taking some turns we were on the bike trail. I didn’t carry a camera during this race because I really wanted to focus on PR’ing.
Around mile 2, I started to realize that this gal and I kept passing each other, so once we started to run side by side I opened up a conversation. That conversation lead up to running the entire race together!! It was amazing to have my new friend, Teri, and I supporting each other the entire time!
Some people may say that running along the bike trail was boring, but I loved it. We didn’t really have much crowd support but the trail was scenic and I had a new friend by my side. There were water/gatorade stops every 1.5 miles and we made a turn around at 6.5 miles.
As we made the turn around we started looking for my mother-in-law and her sister + Teri’s friends. We’d holler and make a scene each time we saw someone we knew — it was loads of fun.
When we saw mile ten we knew we were both going to make our goals. Teri wanted to run under 2:30 and since my goal was under 2:20, she was ready for meeting her goal in a big way.
I remember when we crossed the railroad tracks that meant we were almost out of the bike trail and ready to start making our way to finish line at Priutt Field. We made it out of the trail and then faced some hard core headwind from mile 12-13. It was okay though because we we so close to finishing.
Then came a let down.
All the literature we read said we would need to make half a lap to make it to the finish. A goal was 2:11 was in our sight. But then, as we entered the field, we were then told we had to make 1.5 laps!! We were both shocked and I later found out from John that many of the other runners were pretty confused too!
I’m actually still pretty confused because we passed mile marker 13 already and half a lap would have made sense to reach the 13.1. So unless that mile marker 13 was misplaced, 1.5 laps would have made it closer to 13.35? See, I’m still confused.
Anywhooo, I spotted John and his dad right away in the stands and we high-tailed it into the finish line.
Unofficial PR — 2:14 something — which will be 2:13 something as net time! I’m so stoked and excited!! This will be about 7 minutes off my other time!!
[Edited to add: Official time of 2:13:26! PR by 7:33 minutes! I was 15/25 for my age group, 151/275 for women, and 372/557 overall. Can anyone explain why these ranks are using gun time instead of net time though? Just found it odd! So pleased with my time of 2:13:26!!!!]
We snapped a few pictures before making our way back to the stands to cheer on John’s mom and aunt. This is Teri and I on the right — not sure I could have done it without you Teri! Thank you!!
And before we knew it, G and D were on the field and making their laps!!
They did great! And this was my mother-in-law’s first half marathon! Way to go G!
A great job by all… 
I’ll let you know when I get my official time and I plan on doing a race review like I did with Mill Creek.
Anyone else race this past weekend? How’d it go?
Awesome job!! Congrats on a great race
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Thank you so much Brittany!
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Awesome job Katie! I love reading you recaps – you make running halfs look easy-peasy
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Hahha, I do love the half distance! Thanks Maria!!
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WTG!!! Sounds like a perfect day for a PR!
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Thank you Kim! And it was SUCH the perfect day!!
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Yayyyy katie! What a great race
So proud of you!!!
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
Thank you so so much Brittany!
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Great job on PR-ing, you have been a race running maniac these past few months!
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:55 pm
Hhaha, I’m totally taking a break after my race in May!
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Yay for a PR!
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That is SO awesome!! LOVE that you made a new friend mid-race, all the better. Cannot believe how you killed that PR time, like whoa!
So awesome.
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Thank you so so much Jess! I was so tickled with my time and loveddd meeting Teri to be each others support!
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Fabulous work lady! I am so proud of you! Can’t wait to celebrate!
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Thank you Alicia!! See you this week — we can pretend to celebrate
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Great recap, very weird about the lap thing, especially hearing about it during the race at the end there. I’ve always wanted to finish a race on a track, looks cool.
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:53 pm
Thanks! And it was fun finishing on a track because it was like a victory lap — but so startling to find out you have to do more come the end of the race!
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great race!!! I bet that felt awesome to shave 7 minutes off!! wow!! that feeling when you are done is the best feeling!
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
SUCH and amazing feeling! Especially when I was soo proud of shaving over 7 minutes off! I can’t wait to show everyone the official finish photo
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Congrats! Nice job setting your PR.
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Thank you David!! Now I need to decide what my next goal should be
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Awesome job on the PR!!! I’m so happy for you.
How cool you made a friend too.
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:51 pm
Thank you Tina! It was so so so great to make a friend and have Teri running beside me the whole time! SUCH fun!
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Congrats on the PR!! You totally blew it away!
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Ah, I was so happy with it! Thank you for the congrats!!
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Great race! And congrats on the PR!
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Thank you Matt!!
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Congrats on the PR! That’s weird they would use the gun time instead of chip time. I’ve never had a race do that. The lap thing is weird too. Although, I ran a relay last year that said our last runner’s leg was 3.5 miles & they ended up changing the course the day of the race & it ended up being 6 miles…and they didn’t tell anyone.
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Oh my gosh, that would be so frustrating going from 3.5 to 6 without them telling you! Some people definitely wouldn’t be able to do that — big difference! Glad you could of course
Thanks for the congrats!!
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Great job on the PR!!! You have been on fire with the races lately!
Congrats, Katie!
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Thank you so much Heather!!
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Congrats on the PR!!! I’m so proud of you!
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Katie @ Healthy Heddleston Reply:
April 6th, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Thank you Kali! Maybe one day I’ll be able to keep up with you
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