Final Run

Time for my 3rd half marathon. Once again excited and nervous as I ran the OKC Memorial Half Marathon. I had set a goal to beat and had done my best at training this year. I started late on training again, but did more than I had in previous years, that in its self made me happy :). On my last long training run - 10 miles the week before the race- I had some real difficulty with my knees. This definitely concerned me, but I was still going to do my best. Running in such a large group is exhilarating. I think everyone should run in a race one time. At this race they have 168 seconds of silence to remember those who were killed in the federal building in 1995. This year an additional 3 seconds were added for the 3 that were killed in the Boston Marathon the week prior. It is truly humbling to have 20,000 + quiet to remember those whose lives were lost. After that, it was time to run. I was feeling pretty good till mile 9. My pace was about 13:00 avg. I thought I could beat the goal I had set for myself. Unfortunately, both my knees and my right hip really began to hurt. I would walk a bit than jog. It was discouraging, but I kept trying. I crossed the finish line with an official time of 3:07 which was the same as last year. I am not fast but I finished. My goal was under 3 hours, but it didn't work out. I thought maybe I need a new hobby or goal, like painting, but now that some time has passed I think I'll probably run another half and try to get it under 3 hours.