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Thursday, April 17, 2014

Dallas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon

I ran the Dallas Rock 'n' Roll Half-marathon, my second half, in March. It was honestly one of the best races I've ever had. Going into this race, I was a little nervous. I had slacked off the last weeks of training, the most critical weeks. I had prepared better for the Dallas Marathon in December, but it got cancelled at the last minute. Mentally, I was prepared but physically I just wanted to finish under 2:45. And that's all I was focused on. 
picking up my race bib at the expo, 2 days before race day!
quick selfie before the race!
That morning, Jarrah and I rode the train to the race in downtown. It turned out to be a good idea, since we didn't want to deal with traffic. The race started at 8am, but my corral took off about 15 minutes later. 


I felt great through out the race. At each mile, I was ahead of my anticipated time goal and that got me really excited. I ran nonstop, which is something I don't usually do especially on a long run like this.

Around mile 11, I started to push myself a little harder. By then all I wanted to do was just be done. It almost turned out to be a disaster because I began to get cramps towards the end of mile 12. In fact, one of my legs got numbed. I was like heck no! I did not just run non-stop to let this happened as I am finishing. So it took a lot of positive thinking and pumped up music to get me to the finish line alive. It also helped that my family was there to cheering me on.

Sadly this lady stole my shine... lesson learned: clear your path next time.
All that positive thinking paid off. I finished well under my time goal, and I beat my previous (first)half time as well. 

As soon as I crossed the finished line, I stopped running and had to walk. It felt a bit crowded with both, runners and volunteers everywhere. Volunteers handing water, bananas, etc. Time felt like it was moving slow. In my mind, I my legs felt like they were still moving in a running motion. As I walked passed volunteers, a girl stopped me to hand me my medal. My medal! I almost missed it! I was in such a high, I was just walking like a zombie. They kept handing me all these free goodies. Milk, bananas, towels. A lady saw I was struggling to keep up with all my stuff and offered to helped me. I told her I felt so lost and remembered thanking her. Finally I found my friend, Jarrah. Then my family! 
my family. mom, niece and nephew, tia and cousins. 
We soon took off after that because the weather was a bit chilly. I rewarded myself with some well deserved tacos. After a cold shower, I laid in bed for most of the day. I wasn't as sore the next day as I thought I would be. 

It was an awesome day and I look forward to beating this finished time. Let's see how it goes! 

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