Syracuse Half Marathon Review

I hadn't intended on Running the Syracuse Half until one of my friends decided she needed to give her bib up to attend to her injured foot. I was originally planned to work yesterday, but one of my Colleagues agreed to work for me so I could be crazy and run a Half marathon with 3,000 other people. She actually said to me, "I cannot believe you want to take off from work to run a Half Marathon." I just smiled back at her.

See, when you aren't a runner, you don't get the feeling of a "runner's high". My happiness is seeing how far I can push my body, how far I can go, how mentally am I ready to take on what I am doing. That is my motivation to keep running.

I woke up feeling not the greatest yesterday. My stomach was off and I was a bit nervous on how I would tolerate gels to be honest with you. I decided to stick to the plan and eat my normal pre race meal of Bananas, Raisins, Almond butter, and Honey. I decided to continue to hydrate well and take my Sweet potato, applesauce and Cinnamon pouch with me in the car.

The roads were less than spectacular when I headed to the venue. It is only a 15 min drive from my house, but with traffic backing up on the highway pretty quickly, I decided to get off the highway and park 3 blocks away and run to the start. I figured it would be a great warm up prior to the start. I did slide in my car a bit, which made me nervous on how the roads would be.

I then got the message they had purchased salt and actually salted the whole course by hand! Kudos to the race director and volunteers!!!

The weather was only 17F at the start with a little wind. I decided to go with tights, long sleeve and outer shell. I get pretty hot with running and felt this was perfect for the conditions.

I had planned on pacing with a few friends so I sought them out at the start and planned to stick with them like glue for the whole race. It turned out, I ran with 1 of them the whole way and had a BLAST!

We seeded ourselves in the 7-9 min Pace group and planned to run 8 min miles give ot take.

I took a gel, listened to the National Anthem and we were off and running around 8:15AM

We kept a steady pace as there wasn't much wiggle room to get past people at the start. Going up James street was tight. We only had half the road as it wasn't closed to traffic and just decided to play it steady but not rush it. My partner and I were being crazy up the hill "We eat hills for breakfast, sprinkle some cinnamon and sugar on it, oh yeah!!" Everyone around us was huffing and puffing already.

We made sure to run easy through every water stop and grab what we needed for the long haul. I think it really paid off! We hydrated and kept on running.

Miles ticked by. We talked about the race, we talked about Ironman, We talked about goals, we talked about our pace, we laughed at how serious other runners were.

Before we knew it we were Around the MOST and heading home! The last few miles were a little tough but I was on pace for a good time. I wanted under 1:50 and knew I was well below that at this point. I felt good so I kept on pushing.

My partner was telling me to kick it into gear and that we were almost done when we rounded the last corner. I didn't believe him until I heard the announcers.

I decided it was time to pick off some runners at this point. Picking it up a little more.

My stomach held off and I was able to take in the appropriate nutrition to get to the finish line! I was elated! I gave my running partner a hug, and thanked him so much for giving me the confidence to do a 1:45!!!! 7:20 min PR!!!

Nothing can describe the feeling that you get when you accomplish a goal and beat that goal. I even negative split the race!! Awesome!!!!

I cannot say enough about this race. To the Pre Race Expo, to the Warm Oncenter prior to the race, to the Race Director, Volunteers, spectators, Finisher Medals, Meal, Swag and Music!!! I LOVED this race! I will be signing up again next year for sure. The only downside of the race was the Darn Potholes in Syracuse!! Darn winter tore up the road pretty badly!

TIME: 1:45:03
22/303 AG 30-34
120/1840 Females
355/2773 Finishers

Now onto my next goal of under 1:40. Don't Stop Believing!!!