Chips and Salsa Half Marathon

Ok so I had been jumping over some hurdles to be able to train for this one especially when hubs was out of town or couldn't help watch the kiddo for some of my longer runs on the weekends.  I had a wonderful training partner that helped get me through some of this!  One run she actually came over to my house and let me run while she watched our two kiddos then when I got back we switched spots ( I think this was for the 10 mile run).  Now that is a dedicated training partner!  I can't believe we didn't manage to get a photo of the two of us on race day or during any of our training!  But that's what happens when you're in a hurry to get back to the kids you left at home with the dads :-)

To start off the morning I drove to the wrong starting point!  I had done this race director's last race in April and in my head just went on autopilot to the start of the last race.  I'm thinking where is everyone.  Luckily I pulled it up on my phone and saw it was a totally different race start and made it there just in time to give my training partner her bib and chip, hit the port a potty and go to the start.  Whew!!!  So with some adrenaline we started the race.  She was in the middle of tying her shoe when the start gun went off so she had to maneuver her way to the side line to get it tied.  Ok now we're really started!  We ran the first 6 miles together which was great because we kept each other distracted and we were running somewhere around 9 min. miles I think.  Then when I noticed I started getting side splints trying to keep up with her I told her this is where we part.  I felt good until around mile 10.  I could feel dehydration kicking in and for some reason my hips were hurting.  Either way I pushed through and finished feeling tired but good.  Finished 13.21 in 2:12 which I was happy with.  The last half I did was similar flat course and about 5 months earlier and I had finished it in 2:18.  So it's progress!!!

I got two medals the regular finishers medal and one for doing their 13.1 x 2 challenge because I did their two half marathons in the same year.  Didn't even plan that one!

My next half marathon is in about 4 weeks so I have 3 weekend training runs in between.  I'm having a hard time deciding what I want those to look like.  I was thinking a recovery short run this weekend then a 12 and a 7 but not sure I need all that...  It's going to be at sea level so I should be a little faster.  Anyone have ideas on mileage with this amount of time in between halves?

Happy Training!