The Half Marathon

The dreaded training on the treadmill.

At the starting line!

We are actually moving - it took us 7 minutes to get to the start.

Coming back to LR from NLR.

Done! I actually finished in 2:22 but I didn't stop my watch until I sat down.

Back in October, we signed up to run the Little Rock Half-Marathon in March. We had a pretty easy training schedule at that point - run 30 minutes, 3 times per week. This was our build-up routine and I was pretty much doing this already. After we started adding mileage, the trouble started. With the holidays, a couple of injuries, and few sickie weeks we were behind in January. We had built up to 6 miles at that point, we decided from there that we would add a mile each week to get up to the 13.1 miles.

I stuck with this schedule pretty good but an old knee injury forced me to run on a treadmill. I built up to 10 miles on the treadmill and it was pretty miserable. I don't mind running on the treadmill but for over 2 hours by yourself is not fun at all. In the end I was able to run a few times outside to get ready for the hills and pavement. I wasn't as prepared as I would've liked but I did the best I could do.

On race day, I was pretty nervous. I didn't feel as prepared as I would've liked and my knee was always an issue. I was hoping to finish in 2.5 hours and I finished faster than that! I got to the finish line at the same time the winner of the full Marathon did - that was exciting.

Although, the training was not fun and it took a lot of time, I do think I'll try to run this again. The race itself was a lot more fun than I expected. It really made me appreciate Little Rock and happy to live here, the race was really put together well and there were so many supporters on the sidelines cheering you on. I also got to see parts of Little Rock that I've never seen - the Governor's Mansion for example.

I recommend everyone try to run a half-marathon! :)