Dexter-Ann Arbor Half

Do you know how far 13.1 miles is? No really. Stop a minute. Picture yourself on an interstate in a car that is running on "E" and it's 13.1 miles to the next exit. Or, try to remember back to middle school when you had to run a mile for gym class. Now try to imagine doing that 13 times in a row. Or better yet. Try to imagine the length of 192 football fields. Needless to say, 13.1 miles is looong distance. So what was I thinking signing up for the Dexter-Ann Arbor Half (Half is short for Half Marathon. You've got to learn the lingo when your rollin' with the running crowd.). Personally, I think it takes forever to DRIVE 13.1 miles let alone RUN it!

So on February 19, I started my 16 week training which consisted of running 4 times a week, 3 shorter runs during the week and a long run on the weekend. Yeah, I did about half of that. I think of training schedules as more...suggestions than actual must dos. In all honesty though, three quarters of the way through my "training" I was getting a bit scared. The half marathon is a "rolling" marathon. Which means that at every 12 minute interval the race officials open back up the course to the normal Sunday traffic. So I would need to maintain at least a 12 minute per mile pace for the first 10 miles of the course or I would find myself running in the middle of the street as some kind of real life Frogger! Currently I was averaging about an 11:30 minute pace, which is cutting it kinda close.

But then I discovered a secret weapon. God Bless those people at Kellogg's. Two weeks before the 13.1 mile run, I had a 9 mile training run. The night before I had some Rice Crispy Treats. And when I say "had some" I mean "had the entire box". And when I say "entire box" I mean "entire family size value pack". Most other runners carb load on pasta the night before a long run, but not I. I feast on puffed rice coated in marshmallowy sugar sweetness! But the next day, I had an AWESOME run. I felt like I could have run forever. So I definitely knew what the game plan was the night before the Half.

So how does this story end? Well, it ends with me developing a sharp pain in my left foot that doesn't seem to want to go away. It ends with me finishing dead last in my age group (25 to 29). But I don't care. Because I shaved a FULL MINUTE off my per mile pace finishing in 2 hours 15 minutes and 47 seconds. Yeah Baby!