I love REI. And running.

The course was gorgeous-through the "Emerald Necklace" of Boston (ie. all the parks and zoo)- but I just did not feel good. The temps were cool, but it was humid and my legs felt tired. I'm glad I did it though b/c it was a reminder to me "to suck it up buttercup." The races aren't all going to be PR's, especially now that I've been running for a few years. And, I'm not a professional athlete. I run for other reasons than to be a wonderful stupendous runner.

Just for posterity sake, I looked up all of my 1/2 marathon times:

2001 Quantico 1/2 marathon 1:51:35

2002 Quantico 1/2 marathon 2:10:47 [took the previous two weeks off with a foot injury that had me in one of those blue wooden shoes and had a bone scan. was ecstatic beyond belief to be able to run this race and finish marathon training]

2004 Austin 1/2 marathon 1:46:49 [cool temps and downhill]

2007 BAA 1/2 marathon 1:51:32

After the race was fun. Some people from my running club met up in REI (one guy wanted to buy a coat) and we were like kids in a candy store. [in case people don't know, REI is an AWESOME sporting goods store]. I bought an EXCELLENT bright yellow tapered reflective biking/running windbreaker. I'm in love. Then we went to brunch.

One interesting moment is me standing in the 8:00 min. coral and some guy coming up behind me and hugging me from behind. I catch a glimpse of him and start discreetly pointing at the guy and silently mouthing to my friend from school who was next to us, "That's him!!!" It was my recent ex. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. We made small talk for about 5 minutes while I'm thinking, why are you talking to and hugging me? Then he left to go a few rows back in the coral with some other people he knows and then went on to beat me by 20 minutes.

I actually had a pretty good day despite coming face to face with the fact that being a triathlete is slowing me down....or, by keeping me injury-free, perhaps it's allowing me to make it to race day...hmmmm. Hard to say...