I finished!!!!

well this last weekend i got to do a couple great things. Friday Elizabeth and i ditched the girls at Grandma Peg's and headed down to Indianapolis. we got downtown and went straight to the packet pickup. flawless. we walked around the expo for a bit. it was good. nothing you had never seen before, yet good. we left there and decided to go eat at the Ram. as we were walking and for a lot for the drive, there was definite concerns about rain on Saturday. Not that i had any control over so i tried to not worry about it. we got done eating and headed straight to the hospital to go see Lexy. It was great. very nice place, super nice nurses and obviously this little girl has an insanely larger rooting section. i couldn't believe how many nurses stopped in to say bye for the weekend or just dropped by to see her or just thought they would come in to see if she needed anything. Elizabeth and i played fair and shared the baby, but she did seem happier when with me, just an observation. eventually we had to pack up and head to aunt Paula's for the carbfest of '09. Rob and Stacy joined us also which was great to see them. We all loaded up and pizza and pasta and cheesecake. yeah yeah yeah. but cheesecake is so gooood. so we got our plan together for the next morning and around 10:30 i hit the hey.

4:30 i was up, not showering, but getting all ready. at 5:15 Uncle Ron, Aunt Paula, Elizabeth and I piled into the Infinity FX35 and headed to go get my cousin Heather. Heather works for IUPUI so we had sweet parking. so we got to where we needed to be. did a little stretching, found my running buddy, Jon. took a couple pictures. and waited. got in the corral (S by the way) and waited. and waited. GUN WENT OFF.....and we waited. a little more. around 45 minutes after the gun went off, Corral S finally launched. Now it's not that it matters, since your own time doesn't start until you cross the start line, but it sucked either way. any stretching was worthless. then you pass all these walkers that lock arms and stretch all the way across the road. you hear "walkers to the right" but they don't. so that was really frustrating. first mile was in the 11 minute range which i was fine with i didn't want to go out and have nothing left at mile 4 so i just kept where i felt comfortable. every mile was almost exactly 10:30. 10:32, 10:31, 10:29. i did have a 12:45 (bathroom break) but i kept thinking that at some point i would step it up and push the high 9's. nope. 10:30's kept on rolling along. Mile 11 was the first time i rally thought, "boy, this could be over now and i wouldn't be to upset." when mile 12 came up i thought, alright, strong finish, lets go out big. i stepped it up. REALLY WENT AFTER IT! i think that i was at a 9:09 pace. they start counting down your distance left. 3/4 mile...whew!.... 1/2 mile.....wow, this is close...... 1/4 mile, CRAP I THINK I STARTED PUSHING TO SOON!!!! AND THE FINISH! my official time was 2:18:51. the splits...

5 mile, 53:12, which is 10:38 mile
10 mile, 1:48:16, which is 10:49 mile
13.1, 2:18:51, 10 10:36 mile
15,252 place of 35,000 half marathoners

very happy. i really wanted to be at or under 10 minute miles but really my best 10k (6.2 miles) was a 10:02 last year so this is very much on pace. if nothing else, now i have a half under my belt and i can work on it. i have a feeling that i will do at least 3 more this year, along with 5k and 10k's. i have a 5k in two weeks and i am getting excited about that already.

so my PR's are..
5k (Sunburst 2008, 31:56, 10:18 mile)
10k (River City Rat Race 2008, 1:02:16, 10:02 mile)
Half Marathon (Indy Mini 2009, 2:18:51, 10:36 mile)