Week 6 - Success!

I successfully completed my first half marathon this past Sunday! I finished it in 2:09:59 - right around what I expected to do. Whoever said that if you can just do 10 miles beforehand then you're good to go (only like every training website I looked at) failed to mention the pain that accompanies miles 10-13.1! But all in all, I am happy with simply completing my first race.
So this means my first goal is completed - I finished a half marathon! But now the daunting task of my second goal, finishing it under 2 hours, looms ahead of me. 10 minutes sounds like a piece of cake in the whole scheme of 2 hours... but then I put it into perspective that it's essentially shaving off 45 seconds from each mile. I am having trouble fathoming doing that for 3 miles nonetheless 13! So perhaps this goal is out of reach, but it is still something to strive for, and something I will do my best to achieve.


Here are my race details:

Half Marathon
Runner Details Race Results
Bib: 2492
Name: Julie Dragicevich
Gender: F
Age: 23
Hometown: Westlake Village, CA
Overall: 1087 out of 2979
Women: 386 out of 1636
F 20-24: 42 out of 102
Age/Grade: 50.65% Place: 1146
Finish: 2:09:59 Pace: 9:55
Tag Time: 2:09:59
Gun Time: 2:12:29
Split Times
10 Km: 1:00:06 Pace: 9:41

Week 5 - Barriers

Barriers
1. My own mentality - I've always been athletic, which occasionally leads me to believe I can do things without proper training.
2. Physical - going from running less than 2 miles at a time to 13.1 miles has been a bit of a shock to my muscles!
3. Continuing to train after the first race - I'd like to run another race after my first one this upcoming weekend.

The whole point of doing a half marathon for me is to maintain and/or get in shape. I definitely can see that my personal drive is waning already, so I need to continue to push myself and keep my end goal in mind.

Week 4 - Support

I know that I work the best under two conditions:

One, if I have a deadline, I am more likely to push myself to achieve my goals.

Two, if I have other people doing the same activity as I am, I will compare myself and try to be better. Being the youngest child and only girl, it's the only way I know!

So, that's why I am running the half marathon with 3 other people. My boyfriend Rob, my non-blood brother Nik, and his (real) sister Kira. Nik and Rob are bigger, stronger, faster, and Kira is a better runner than I am. What better company than that?!

It's not so much that I want to beat them, but more that I just want to hold my own. And I know the best way for me to do that is to train appropriately, and to make sure that my body can handle the distance. The speed will happen on its own, and I know that I will push even harder when it's race time. The other 3 can definitely finish the race, and that's my goal at this point. Kira ran 11 miles this past weekend, which gave me the inspiration to run longer than I might have otherwise. I ran 10.5 miles yesterday, leaving just 2.6 miles more for race day. This will be my longest run before the race - from now on I am going to do 6 miles or less to make sure I am fully healed for the 21st. (That seems like a long time from now, but I had some serious trouble walking today!)