Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon Race Report

I had a great weekend and enjoyed getting to race with Cathy again. I love starting out with her. I know I cannot keep up with her because she is faster than me but I enjoy starting our race out together! She also gives me that nice kick in the butt I need on race day (literally!)

I have to admit that I started this race out once again stuck in my head. Lately, this has not been a great place to be. I continue to struggle with whether or not I want to keep racing, much less running. I also worry about this repaired hip and when and if it will ever be back to 100%. And for some reason, I keep fixating on whether or not I will be able to finish when a race sets a time limit on it!! Ugh!! So, going into a race with these thoughts churning around is not a great feel. Luckily, I also remember my friend, Ricky's last e-mail about my 10-k and his encouragement and I worked on re-focusing!

Saturday morning, I decided to focus myself on a thought from a good friend...”Shut up and run, woman!” LOL! It was a good focus. The morning was perfect for the run...great temperatures and a great course. I was running with a brace on the left knee and a knee strap on the right knee because I had been fighting a little bit of knee pain. I was a bit concerned since I had not run with either of them on before but I had worn them prior to the race to get used to them.

I was on my own for the first 4 miles...I ran as much as I could and then walked in between and kept a really good pace. I refused to look back to see if there was a shuttle following because I knew there was nothing I wanted behind...my medal was at the end of the race and ahead of me. So, I kept my focus on a couple of ladies who were running a similar pace to mine. The first 4 miles were mental for me again. I struggled with just giving up and accepting defeat around mile 2. Somewhere around mile 3, I remembered that I have everything in me to complete this. I have done my mileage and my long slow distance days. The only thing I needed to do was get out of my head and in to my run. So, I decided to kick my own butt. It was also around that time I saw a shirt that read “Dead Last Finish is better than Did Not Finish” So, I knew that I was in it to finish no matter what.

Around mile 5, I ended up running and walking with the ladies that I was following. Of course, I enjoyed some great conversation and made the miles and the time pass quicker. I started feeling some real pain in my left hip around mile 8...I started walking a bit more at that point but did not slow my pace. I also started to feel some blistering happening on my feet. And of course, I felt the urge to pee early in the race. I decided unless the urge became overwhelming that I would not be making a port-a-potty stop since every time I passed one, there were lines. One of the ladies decided to pick up her pace, so the other lady and I continued our race together. It was a good choice because it was her first half and she was struggling. So, we encouraged each other.

I could have left her around mile 12 but she started to really struggle around then and I wanted to help her cross the finish line. She kept looking backwards, so I re-focused her and then we began pushing each other to the finish line. When I finally saw the finish line in sight, I knew I was home free. I had reserved a little energy for my finish. I wanted to make sure I could run across this finish line! So, I took off and finished it strong. I was sore crossing the line but my knees and my hip were not dead.

There were about 4000 people registered for the race. So, I feel pretty great to be one of the 2699 runners to finish the race!

I learned a lot too. I know that I am not 100% recovered from surgery yet and cannot expect to repeat my best time just yet. But I was thrilled to finish this race in 3:16:11 since I finished Nashville this year in 3:19:25. So, with a repaired labrum in my hip and a lot of hard work, I knocked 3 minutes off my time. I figure there is only a matter of several more months and training and I will be hitting under 3 hours since my best time was in Columbia (February 2010) at 3:07. So, I have a goal in mind and that gets me more focused.

In the next couple of months, I will be working with my friend, Chuck, to improve my form in running. Before I tore my labrum, I was on the track to running better. And now, I am struggling with overcompensating for injuries and I am back to square one. Now that I have a good half under my belt and the confidence to head towards my goal of under 3, I will get some great training in and some refocusing and my next half I will be pushing myself even harder across the line!! And I will be reminding myself yet again, that I am so not done with running or racing.

Overall, I felt that they did a great job with the race. Absolutely no safety concerns while running. The police kept the roads clear and I didn't have to worry about being run over. There was also plenty of water and gatorade on the course (and not red gatorade! LOL!) It was a pretty flat course too. I really enjoyed it and am considering running it again next year. I hate the technical shirt...the design was just dull. The volunteer shirt looked much better. But the medal was huge and really heavy! So, I guess they spent their money on the medal. All in all, I felt it was a great race and will likely do it again.