2013 Martian Invasion Recap

I just completed my 2nd Half Marathon. This week, as the race approached I was having a hard time with this for some reason. I was a ton more nervous and anxious about the race. I was not as well trained as I wanted to be and I had set some pretty hard goals for myself, doable but hard.

One Friday night, I learned that the Half and Full courses were flooded. It was not a huge surprise since it had been raining most of the week and Hines Drive seems to flood if too many people spit on it. So I got up knowing it would be an alternate course but I didn't know anything else.

My mom, Abby and I headed out about 7:20am. After a quick pee stop at Walmart since I was unsure of what it would be like at the start, we got there and parked a little after 8am. I felt bad since I had wanted to see Andrea start but we had to park almost a mile away and Abby walks really slow sometimes plus we had to have a comic break on the walk. While we were there, Abby saw 2 dogs and she asked "are those real?", she just could not believe this pretty walk dogs were real. The owners had quite a laugh!

The other big "issue" with this race was what to wear. I was afraid of being too cold but I was also afraid of getting too warm. I ended up deciding on my long pants (not my lined ones), SparkleSkirt, long sleeve shirt, RawThreads T-shirt and my running jacket with my gloves.

Here we are at the starting area. I have no idea why the BondiBands did not show up better here but oh well. Abby was freezing and of course hungry while we waited so I gave her my heavier coat I was not wearing to run in.

She was cute and so excited to be able to go to another "BIG" race with me.


From there we heard the announcement about the course. The first one was flooded (as I already knew) but the alternate course had construction on it so we were running on the alternate's alternate. The marathon runners had to do the course twice and I felt bad for them.

We lined up kind of middle of the pack and waited. For some reason the race started about 8 minutes late!!! We came out FAST and did Mile 1 in under 10:30. It was also really hilly which shocked me because I had no idea there were hills in Dearborn. Kind of like being surprised by the hills in Rochester last summer, oops!

We settled into a good pace and focused. They had a couple later stops close together but then we went into a subdivision. Since I have no idea what was the old course and what is new, I just went with it. Mile 3-5 (or so) were around houses. The roads were pretty pot hole filled and you had to watch your footing but it was OK. There were no water breaks in there though which was OK but it messed with my fueling. I usually fuel by distance and since I could not predict the next stop it was odd.

At the half way point we were on track for the 2:30 finish we both wanted. Problem was, it was windy and it made breathing weird the whole time. I wasn't sure we could keep the same pace for the end but we tried and I think I would have made it but around Mile 11, my calves felt pregnant. And by that I mean they were moving like my stomach did when I was pregnant. Totally weird like I had aliens. Not painful but not great either.

Then the last mile was basically dead on into the strongest wind of the race. It was ROUGH! Jennifer and I stayed together until the last .30 miles. I told her to go ahead since I wasn't sure what I had in me. When we turned the final corner she was right ahead of me and so I should have pushed harder.

At the finish line Abby and I mom were there with a sign they had made! It was so wonderful to see. Also, a teacher from work was volunteering at the finish line so I got to see him!!

Overall, I am disappointed in myself. I should have trained harder and done more and I will!!