Denver Half Marathon

Well I completed my first 1/2 marathon. Granted I've run that distance and longer many times during training but I'd never actually done it in a race.

Sunday morning started off early, 4:15 am early. I was a little worried when I burned my normal prerace breakfast of peanut butter and jelly toast and after checking my bag, I discovered my iPod was almost dead. Lucky for me, those were the worst things that happened all day.

Before the race my friend Kirsten and I met. She had been training for the past 4 months or so to run this race. She was really excited and nervous at the same time. A feeling I know for sure.

On the way to the starting line I saw my old TNT coaches Tony and Andy which was awesome. It's always nice to see friendly faces in the crowd. At a little after 7am we were off! For some reason everyone started at the same time rather than in waves which caused a bit of a cluster for the first few miles.

Along the way we ran by lots of Denver landmarks. The Pepsi Center, Union Station, Coors Field, City Park and Cheesman Park. It was a beautiful course. Since this was my first big race since the marathon I tried not to put too much pressure on myself to reach a time goal especially since I only had a little over a month of real training and one 11 mile run. I felt strong the entire run and actually had to tell myself to slow down otherwise I might burn out.

I finished in 2 hours 13 minutes and a few seconds. It was an awesome feeling to cross the finish line especially after I was sidelined for an entire month after the marathon and have had a painfully slow recovery from tendonitis.  Note to self: DO NOT GET TENDONITIS AGAIN. 


Kirsten finished about 50 minutes later. I'm so proud of her for not only getting to the starting line but finishing the race strong! We were both proud to show off our medals to Josh and Brandon who were waiting for us at the finish line. Josh and I met my friends Rachael and Jason for a late celebratory brunch.

My legs were a bit sore for a few days after the race, but now I feel ready to run again. I think I'll tackle my first post race run on Saturday before heading up to Fort Collins to cheer on the Rams for Josh's birthday.