Inaugural Yosemite Half Marathon

For some reason, last year, after I started running, I decided I wanted to run a half marathon. I saw it as a bucket list item for me to check off, something to accomplish. When I saw the Inaugural Yosemite Half on Facebook, I knew this was THE race if I was going to run a half. And well, I did it. And, well I’ll wait to tell you…

I kept thinking the entire time, what have I gotten myself into? Why did I sign up for this? What am I thinking? On the plus side, the first 6 miles were AMAZING like the best ever, but I was totally fed up with the downhill at that point.  Which if you look below you can see the first 10 miles are a drastic drop in elevation…which is better than going up but really it can be equally as painful…

Here we are at the Start Line, just before 7 am.

Once we started, I decided not not run with music. I wanted to enjoy this for what it was worth, so I took my headphones off and listened to the pitter patter of footfall all around me, including my own.

Miles 1-6 were great, I felt good I had a great pace but after 6 my toes started to hurt and I began to develop blisters. There was an EMT station there at mile 7 but I didn’t think it was severe enough to stop. My biggest problem, (rookie runner here) is my shoes were too small. I only began to realize this in the last month and there wasn’t enough time to get sized and buy new shoes and break them in in time for this race.

The last 3 miles downhill, were the hardest downhill of the day. And the last 5k around the lake I honestly walked…my toes hurt so bad there wasn’t a foot plant that didn’t give me pain. I am convinced I could have finished at a better pace if I had better shoes, I felt like I had no support.

I ran the last tenth of a mile, everyone else who had finished was cheering us on and I knew if nothing else I had to run that last bit, I wanted to collapse. The best feeling in the world was the guy at the finish that told me congratulations on finishing and my HUGE medal.

 

Seriously it is the size of my face. Post race we got a recovery box of protein bars, dried fruit and honey stinger waffles. We also got a banana and chocolate milk. I hate bananas. I knew that having a banana would help my body recover, but if I just had a banana no one would believe that I ate said banana. So I took a photo…then Travis crossed the finish line.

So, like I was saying at the beginning of this post, I think I want to do it again!! Maybe break the 3 hour mark? Am I crazy or is this that runners high I was looking for the whole way down the course?