Hot Hospital Hill

Oh hey, I ran a half marathon this weekend.  Did ya know?  I signed up for Hospital Hill before I actually ran Big D.  It was a dumb decision because I didn't know how my body, especially my knees, would react to the marathon.  But we've all done dumb things after drinking too much wine and surfing the internet in the middle of the night, right?  Riiiight.

After the marathon my left knee, which was my good knee, decided he was not happy with all this running and basically gave out.  I ordered new knee sleeves and made a weak attempt to at least be in reasonable shape for this race.  Fail. 

BTW, if you thought one knee sleeve was hot, you should see me in two.  I think I'm starting a trend in the running world.  They also make for some super sexy tan lines.

As race day approached, I knew I was undertrained* but I was still really excited.  Hospital Hill is beyond a doubt my favorite race ever.  It is really well organized and I just love running through Kansas City.  I love this town.  Love it.

My personal cheerleader braved the heat to follow me around.  Unfortunately, not a lot of photos were captured.  The race sold out this year, so it was super packed!  I'm so happy that so many people love my favorite race. :)

Oh, hello.

I didn't arrive downtown early enough and got stuck in the porta-potty line before the race started.  I ended up outside of the corral and couldn't start with the pace group like I'd wanted to.  This may have actually been a good thing.  I wanted to start with the 1:50 group, but it took me 3 miles to even catch up to the 1:55 group.  I decided just to stick with them.  I'm pretty sure I would have died if I'd tried to speed up anymore.

The race was hot.  It was hotter than Big D.  Hot!  There were plenty of stretches of shade, and there was a nice breeze.  But when running in the sun, I thought I was going to die.  There were so many times I just wanted to give up and just walk.  But the pacers really kept me going.  They were amazing.  They encouraged us and really kept us going.  As I made my final push at the end and left the group, I said thank you to the Larry the pacer and told him I wouldn't have finished this race if it weren't for him.  Seriously, he was that good.

My official time was 1:54:20.  Not my best time by a long shot, but I'm still pretty happy with how I raced.  I have a tendency to give up when things get rough.  It took everything in me to continue on and really push through the end.  So for that, I'm pretty pleased with the results. 

Finished!

There were popsicles at the end of the race.  Genius.  That was the best popsicle I've eaten in my entire life. 

Is it just me or do I look like a cancer patient in my Bondi Band?

Now that the race is over, I've decided to give the distance running a bit of a break and let my knee heal.  However, Drew has agreed to run a 5K with me in July!!!  This is huge, friends!  We start training this week.  If you want to join us, check out Rock the Crossroads for more details.  Its a night race followed by beer and a concert.  Fun, right?

*Understatement of the year.