Oshkosh Half Marathon Recap

I was so excited to finally get out there and race on Sunday!! The last one I actually ran was the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5 miler. Since I didn't have my mileage up high enough to complete the half marathon I was happy to learn they had a relay option for the half so I found a friend to do it as a 2-person relay. I've never done a relay and was excited to run a race as a team. I was going to doing the 2nd half of the race so I struggled a little with my morning planning since I was actually going to start running until 8 but still had to get there a little after 6am!

We had a blogger meetup before the race, it was fun meeting my fitness buddies.


Jennifer, Kim, Rachel, Jess, me, Michelle(relay partner), Sarah

 A few minutes before the race was set to start we parted ways, Kim and I were both running the second leg of the relay so we began the 1.5 mile trek to get to our exchange and everyone else headed to the starting line. I ditched my long sleeve shirt so after we hit the exchange point I proceeded to get colder....and colder....and colder.....potty break....sooo cold....getting anxious....time to start, oh wait that was some other chick that looked like Michelle.....freaking out.....and there she is!! We only had 1 bib between us so I had to attempt to pin this thing on while running, I am not sacrificing any time just to put that on! We had decided to only use 2 pins to make it easier for the switch.

I was so excited to finally get going I had to mentally tell myself to just keep a good easy pace at the start. I was passing people right away and I was really worried I would lose my energy and slow down, but I looked at my garmin after the first mile and I was right about where I wanted to be at 9:30ish so I just kept it going. I continued to pass about 10-15 people every mile and was wondering when I would actually stop doing that and hit the pace I was running, but that never happened. Finally hit the last turn and I can see the bridge so I stepped it up even more as I still felt like I had plenty left in the tank. As I'm cruising a hear a girl say "How did she get so fast?" and I felt awesome. I think that gave me the extra burst of energy I was looking for.

The last part was running over a bridge and then a quick straightaway to the finish. We only had the sidewalk to run on and I hear a runner yelling at people to move over so she can pass by. I kicked it up another gear because I was not going to let her pass me...and she never did! I continued to pass people all the way up to the finish line and then thought I was going to hurl.

Why do I always look so weird in the race pictures?? Although it looks like I have awesome arm muscles in the first one, I saved you the even weirder looking ones.

Finishing off toget101639-104-009

This race was the best experience ever for me. I didn't feel tired or labored breathing at all and I was having fun with the spectators along the way. I cannot wait to do another race by myself as I'm basically guaranteed a PR due to how speedy I have become lately. I just wish there was a half marathon around here that I could do in the next month. I'm not paying the $80 to race the Green Bay Half and there aren't any other flat ones close. I don't have many hills on my run and don't think it would be a great idea to run a super hilly half when I'm not trained for that one.

Next race up is the Soleburner 5K in 2.5 weeks and I can't wait to see how I can do!!