So how was the half marathon?

I was home the whole week before the race.  Instead of going to the gym like a smart person, I was “nursing my feet” to allow some injuries to heal.  They did heal and I thought that was that.  Since I hadn’t run I didn’t realize that I would just immediately reexacerbate them.

This time I used Endomondo so I knew the pace of each mile (since I’m always in a far back corral and no where near clock time).  I had started walking around mile 5, and by mile 8 my pace was getting pretty slow and I needed to pick it up.  I started running again but  the spots my old blisters had been felt like they had reemerged with a vengeance.  I decided to stop by a medic on a bike to get some bandages to keep me in the race.  I realized one had burst and my sock and shoe were bloody.  The other was bad, but now bandaged.  By this time I was 1.5 minutes behind pace and the flag wavers were saying I needed to speed up or stop.  I started running again, but the other blister felt like the burst one so at mile 11 I figured the health of my feet was more important than pride and waited for the loser wagon.  If it had been my first race ever I might have pushed more, but considering I still have 10 more races this year to prove myself I felt no shame in stopping.  11 miles is just 2.1 miles short of finishing and that hurts to be so close, but I still ran 11 more miles than the majority of the US on Sunday.

Apparently Disney still confers medals to people who don’t finish.  I didn’t wear it around that day (or the next as some people do) since I didn’t feel that I really earned it, but since they gave it to me I got some photos taken.