Buffalo Stampede

First Fall half in the books! I gotta tell ya, in my mind I was thinking this would be just another "small town race". I was so wrong. Don't get me wrong it was in the sense that it was a small town race with a small town crowd and small town after party with small race swag (virtual bag and cotton t-shirt) BUT this was no small race course. OMG! I had read that the last 2 miles were all down hill, it dawned on me towards the beginning of the race that, that meant the first two miles were all uphill. First 2 miles were nothing the entire 6.55 miles out were rolling hills which also meant that the same 6.55 miles back were the same rolling miles. Once again OMG! Hills are very non-existent in the area of Houston I am used to running in. Every so often I make it a point of running in town or a race that has hills BUT this time it was completely unintended. I think tho that in-spite of all that I did pretty alright.  Things they did right? It started on time OR at least they tried to start on time. There is nothing a RD can do about an accident on the race course pre-race. We ended up with about a 15 minutes delay (after a false start) while cars where removed from the road we were running on. They had a cheer squad contest which was cool. Starting at the 1/2 mile and then every mile after were these different squads which was fun. Inbetween the groups were the aid stations which were stocked with Gateraid and water and port-a-potties. It made it so you were never alone on the course for too long. Things I did right? I stuck to my program, until it became too completely unbearable to do so. Mile 11.5 I had to take a potty break and then about 12.5 I had to ease off the intervals and began running 1:1 for a full cycle but manage to get back on pace for the final 1/4 mile. 

Once I hit that final turn it was really all down hill and I managed to cross with a smile on my face. Not much of a crowd at the finish and the awards were already being announced but it was victory for me. This is the first race in the past 4 1/2 years that my husband came to support me on and it was so nice to actually have someone there for me at the finish. He even made effort to take some live action shots for me. I finished in 2:41:13.

Up next, marathon training takes a new turn. The Cy-Fit coaches have decided to merge the Marathon 1 group and the Marathon 2 group for a few weeks so instead of 14 next weekend I am now looking at the challenge of 16 miles. 15 weeks to the startline of the Louisiana Marathon and I am finally moving on to uncharted territory for me.