Crossroads 1/2 Marathon Re-Cap

Whoa, that was pretty tough!

Woke up at 5:30am that morning and was already prepared for the cold and wind.  It's normally a windy race due to the open fields along the course, so the weather reports of winds blowing from the north 20-30 mph with 40 mph gusts didn't help.  I ran the race last year, so I had an idea of what it was going to be like. 

My whole mindset was to just go out there and have fun.  I had just ran an ultra marathon 3 weeks prior to this race and was in the middle of marathon training for Sunburst in May.  I also ran a 15 mile training run two days before and worked a 12 hour shift the day before, but luckily my legs ended up feeling really good that morning.

I drove to the race and sat in my car for 45 minutes watching the rain trickle on my windshield and the branches on the trees blowing around, then I realized I forgot my GU Roctanes at home, so I had no fuel. I remember thinking to myself, "This is definitely not going to be a pretty finish, lol"

As we all lined up at the start line, that's always my favorite part of this event.  The 1/2 marathoners lined up on the left side of the road and the full marathoners lined up on the right side.  As we took off running in different directions, I was actually happy I was "only" running a half that day with the conditions out there. 

Right away we were hit with the rolling hills the first several miles.  Running through the neighborhoods and through the city around Cedar Lake, the wind was not horrible, but as soon as we hit open fields, the wind was enough to almost blow me off the road.  I kept my pace consistent so I wouldn't wear out early and it definitely seemed to help me especially at the very end. 

 Picture of one of the hills on the course

At mile 6, my IPod stopped working and I was stuck with no music the rest of the race(not very happy about that)  The last few miles were the windiest.  Mile 11 I was running straight into a headwind and at times felt like I was running in slow motion.  I just kept on repeating to myself, "almost there, almost there, I've got this"

I crossed the finish line in 1:49:17 and managed to place 2nd in my age group(originally it was 3rd place, but there was an error with the preliminary results and I still got a 3rd place award which I need to return)

I was actually surprised that I ran so well considering all the hills and wind.  I can't wait to see if I can crush my 1/2 marathon PR of 1:40:37 this summer with the speed work I'll be doing.  It was a fantastic event and I did have a lot of fun seeing a few runners there like Maria and Brenda.  I placed 35th overall out of 375 half marathoners too. Congrats to everyone who finished! I'm sure I'll be back next year to run those hills and battle the wind again.  After all, I always love a challenge :)