3M ROCKS!!!!!!!

Woohoo!! 2:11:13!!

The race this morning was awesome. I felt great, I PRed and beat my Kiawah time by 7:27, and I like to think I even beat my unspoken goal of 2:10 if I hadn’t stop to use the restroom and had to wait for the port-a-pottie. Next time I will get it!

I loved the course- a nice break from the usual flat ass runs we are accustomed to in below-sea level Charleston. Of course, who could not love the course? There were a bunch of downhill sections and a couple little hilly sections thrown in (Yes, those were HILLS in my book!) I especially loved the last little uphill at mile 12.6 or so before we got to the finish straightaway. I knew this last section was coming (thanks to Wiley’s email last week about the course layout) and I totally kicked butt. I was passing people left and right as they were not prepared for it. A nice downhill finish too. Love it! And the 3M goody bags with all those fun office supplies- I could totally concoct a cool art project from all that schwag :)

This race felt ten gazillion times better than Kiawah, my first half marathon. I finished Kiawah in 2:18:40 on a flat course. I had not trained enough for it and just hoped to finish in one piece. Today, I felt strong. I felt happy. I felt like I was more in control of myself and my pace and everything around me. I hit no wall at mile 9 like I did at Kiawah and wanted to die. In fact, I maintained a steady pace throughout which was one of my goals after my yo-yo performance before. According to my Garmin, I maintained a 9:58 pace which mentally, makes me happy it is under 10:00 min/pace. I did a 10:35 min/pace at Kiawah this is a huge improvement.

Random fact- of the three South Carolinians that ran the race (yes, there were only 3 of us)... I placed second. Yahooo!!

A special THANK you to Jen aka Gagger... who found me all over the course and cheered me on with some colorful and entertaining signage.... and had a Gator Beer waiting for me at the finish line. YOU ROCK!!!!!!!

I am just so happy. I seriously cannot WAIT til my next race!! Looks like my next one will be running the last leg of my relay team at Myrtle Beach on Feb 17th- my leg is 11.2 miles. Part of me really wants to push it a little bit and run the Hilton Head Half on Feb 10th…. Which I think it is totally doable after taking a weekend off of racing while I am skiing in Utah.

Why the hell not? After all, I am currently in third place in the Charleston Running Club points program for running the most races…