HALFSIES

We did it! We ran the Des Moines 1/2 Marathon on Sunday, and we are both glad it's over :) This is the most I've trained for a race and I am spent, I think Murph feels the same way. For the last 10-12 weeks our Sunday's have been filled with long runs, my alarm went off at 5a too many times, I snoozed that same alarm too many times and my body has hated me for most of it by retaliating with stiff and sore muscles, but I am still glad I did it.

We were both not happy with the initial weather predictions for the day and when I checked my phone I saw this:

That's right 13 MPH winds. WHAT?! But we bundled up and headed downtown.

Both of us felt like we had great runs! Murph killed it clocking in at 1:41:29, with a pace of 7:45 min / mile. Overall he finished 416/5,169 (top 8%) and in his age division he was 51/262 (top 19%). Compared to last years results of 1:42:37, with a pace of 7:50 / mile. Overall he finished 366/4,257 (top 8%) and in his age division he was 283/1522 (top 18%).

He looks fast, and oh, so handsome too :)

I was super happy with my end time of 2:07:23, and 9:44 min / mile pace. I was planning on a 10 min / mile pace so beating that by 16 sec / mile was amazing for me. Overall I finished 2375/5,169 (top 46%, hey it's better than 1/2 of the people!) and in my age division I was 224/572 (top 39%). Compared to my longest race before this which was Dam to Dam in 2010 (only 12.4 miles) I ran in 2:13:41 with a pace of 10:45 min / mile.

Happy to be done, clearly swinging my arms in front of me though, wasting energy, right Murph?

And the obligatory funny I look like I am walking photo, haha

I am not sure how people do marathons, nor do I really ever want to find out because I was so stiff and sore after the race it was humorous. I also don't know if I will run a 1/2 again, I think 10k's might be my race of choice :)