Ocala Half Marathon - Picture Re-Cap

I'll write up a full post about my 1st half marathon race EVER!!!! For now, here are some pictures....

The weather was PERFECTION!!!!Slight chill in the air in the morning but very comfortable to run in. There was even a breeze during some of the race.

Picture of some of the stuff I was taking with me. I ended up not wearing the hat but it was nice to have the option. I bought a gymboss interval timer even though my Garmin FR10 does intervals since we knew we (I was running with 3 ladies from my Galloway pace group) were going to switch intervals during the race. The FR10 is nice, but you can't switch your interval mid-run. Strawberry Cliff bloks and 2 Hammer gels (Montana Huckleberry & Banana) for energy mid-race. My pink handana to wipe my sweaty face during the race was crucial. I purchased an ifitness add-on bottle and put it on my SPI belt. My Cramer knee sleeve to help stabilize my knee cap during my run. Most important....red plastic harmonica because who doesn't need in race harmonica entertainment? :)  And no, I do not know how to actually play the harmonica hahahaha

We picked up our race packets on Saturday before the race and then Saturday night I tried on my race outfit to make sure it was comfortable. I'm glad I decided to do this as after doing a few jumping jacks and running around the bedroom like an idiot I decided to change my sports bra. I bought the shirt from Gymdoll specifically for the half. I was very nervous about my knee. The doctor had told me that I couldn't make my knee worse as it was just pain due to irritation of my knee rubbing. So if I had pain and kept going, it would just suck, but I couldn't tear anything. So this was my motivation to myself just in case my knee starting hurting, to just suck it up and keep going!

We were replacing a 12.5 mile training run with the half marathon race, so we wanting to stay in the realm of a training pace. We decided that 14mm pace would be good to shoot for to maintain. I SUCK at math when sitting at a desk, so I wasn't going to try to do it while running. In the car on the way to the race I wrote out our splits so we'd know how we were doing. We ended up finishing with only a 3 minute variation.

Best race support EVER!!!! Enjoying an orange slice somewhere around mile 9. Hahaha, love how RED my face is in this picture. Thank goodness I didn't feel as exhausted as I look!

This was a sign at the water stop between mile 11 and 12. Just another way to say suck it up buttercup so I just had to get a picture highlighting the sign and my shirt.

Post race with my finisher's medal!!!

Snap shot of my Garmin FR10. My watch was slightly off on our time and pace but pretty close. User error in that I didn't start my watch right away and then I forgot to turn it off until after we had gotten our medals and taken some pictures.

I went to the local running store on Friday with my husband. He suggested I get a magnet but I told him I didn't want to jinx myself. He decided I definitely needed so he purchased it to avoid the jinx :)  On Sunday after the race, he put it on my car. Yay, husband!!!