Rock The Parkway

Last Saturday was the first race of the Heartland 39.3 Series for me and Kyle. This series is 3 half marathons in 5 weekends. Yes, I know, it's nutty. 

Rock the Parkway half marathon is one that we have been looking forward to for a long time. A large group from SLAM were also running it and it was one that I knew I wanted to PR. I had trained really hard for this race mostly trying to get my speed to a consistent pace that I was comfortable at. 

We were up bright and early for the race as usual. It was nice that E was able to stay home with my Dad, such a huge help. We picked up a few of my friends on the way out and got there about an hour before the start time. 

It was a corral start so we knew that our large group wouldn't all be together so we made sure to meet up beforehand to take a photo.

We all said good luck to each other and headed off to our respective corrals. It was pretty chilly at the start, I think 35 degrees was what my phone said right before we started. They released a wave every 2-3 minutes. I looked at Kyle and asked him if he had a goal time in mind, he said "to just finish". I'm not going to lie that was probably the most motivating thing he could have said. It helped me get out of my own head. I did have a goal time, I wanted anything under 2 hour but I knew if I kept thinking about it, it would mess me up.

The horn sounded and we were off. I was afraid that I was going to jackrabbit out and burn out quickly. I had to run this race smart if I wanted to PR. I ran with Kyle until about mile 3 and then I went out ahead which was the weirdest feeling. I ended up catching a friend who was in the corral ahead of us and we ran together for a bit and I just kept on going. At about mile 5 I ditched my pullover which was not the smartest idea haha. The wind started to pick up and I got cold. I had to continue to push through. 

Mile 8 was rough because it was an uphill that I didn't expect. At around mile 10 I noticed raindrops on my sunglasses haha. I couldn't believe it, we had made it that far and NOW it was raining. I continue to try and run smart however once I got to mile 12 it was game over. It was downhill and I tried to push it. I remember seeing a friend of mine on the sidelines cheering me on at the finish and it was awesome! I crossed the finish line and breathed a sigh of relief.

Right after I had my timing chip clipped off my shoe I turned around and there was Kyle finishing. I jumped into his arms and all I remember him saying was "I'm so proud of you!". We both got our official times, Kyle's was 1:52:09 and mine was 1:50:58! HOLY COW! We both PR'd and it was incredible. For me I was able to shave 16 minutes off my last half marathon time. 

This shows my time by my watch which is different than the official time that the race recorded.

It was an incredible race for all of the ladies from SLAM! SO many PRs were obtained.

I highly recommend this race to anyone living in this area. From start to finish it was fantastic. No wonder it gets voted the best half marathon in the midwest yearly.

To be able to have such an amazing race with Kyle was truly the best part. He is my biggest cheerleader and I'm so thankful that I get to experience these moments with him. Now we get to do it all over again this weekend haha.