Have you done your New Year resolution yet?

Today I have fulfilled my New Year resolution - run a half marathon. I wont say it was without pain, but I did it and I did it under my goal of 2 hours 30 minutes.

Yesterday Cecelia and I drove up to Hyatt Lost Pines Resort just south of Austin where the race was being run. We drove down their 3 mile drive which was a very windy road and with lots of steep ups and downs. I said to Cecelia there was no way we would be running along it because I had look at the elevation plot of the race course and it wasn't that bad!

We picked up our race packets, another shopping bag with t-shirt and advertisement. The race was hosted through Zooma. They do races for women, although men are not excluded (54 took part today), and this was only their second year running the race. There were a couple of stalls in the room selling shoes, clothing and other stuff. We got ourselves a free shoulder massage, followed by Cecelia buying some smelly sugar rub (we already have something similar), and then with both bought a pair of Vibrams (for barefoot running) - I will discuss them another day. We spent almost 2 hours wandering around so it was after 8pm before we left and we still needed dinner.

We were booked into a Super 8 motel in Bastrop (a small town off the highway). So on the way back to the motel we looked for food. The first place we tried was 'Chili's', which is quite a large chain place (therefore nothing special), and even at 8:30pm it must be the top place in Bastrop as there was a queue of people out the door and the wait was going to be at least 25 minutes! So we went to find somewhere else. We ended up at a steakhouse, which looked more like a Mexican restaurant than a steakhouse. All we needed was pasta, but all the pasta on the dishes had cream sauce with them - don't need that. We asked the waiter if they could do cream sauce on the side and he said yes. All we drank was water, however it tasted more like toilet water so I had to request 'princess water' (bottled). When he brought a glass of ice with the bottle, Cecelia said don't poor the water in, and she tasted the ice - it was the ice that was grim, so with our warm water we hydrated! Dinner came and you would laugh, the pasta without the sauce looked good, but each plate was served with an enormous soup bowl filled with white (cream) sauce! Cecelia got the photo of it - need to say we didn't touch the white sauce!

Super 8 is a reasonably cheap motel and although the reception looked grim, I was pleasantly surprised with the room. Not to mention the front desk staff was really cheering. The beds were also pretty comfy too. Since we had to be up at 5am it was straight to bed.

The alarm at 5am was painful, my phone alarm decided to work unlike Friday morning when I was late for work because it didn't go off! Neither of us slept particularly well because of being in a strange place, but we showered and got out of the place by 5:30am to go to the parking area to get bused to the resort. The car park was at a school that was getting built so there were no lines in the parking lot. We both laughed that you were getting lots of women to park with no lines to guide them so it was going to havoc!!

I got to go in my first American school bus - you know one of the huge yellow ones. It was very exciting!! Our driver was a little scary as he was very old and seemed to be having difficulty seeing in the dark! Obviously by the time we got to the resort it was still dark at 6:30am and the race wasn't starting until 7:30am (sunrise). We sat around people watching and one of the funniest was a guy dressed in the worst put together outfit I have ever seen. Cecelia described it well, she said 'it was like telling a six year old to dress themselves, and they pick out all their favourite items of clothing!' So this guy had a lurid coloured t-shirt with a flappy shirt, tartan styles Bermuda shots and black and white checked plimsolls. I would not have allowed Stuart to be seen in public like that!!

We ended up nearly at the front of the runners, unintentionally, so we were cross the line in seconds of the 2955 runners. I was tracking our lap times per mile and we managed a sub 9 minute mile, which for me is way too fast especially and that was in the first few miles! The hills started as soon as we left the start gate - please remember I have now lived in flat Houston for a year! It was up and down all the way along a quiet road. We had police everywhere keeping us safe. We had to run up the side of highway 71 for a short while which was fine as all the traffic was slowed but it was quite stinky with car fumes. Then, we ended up going down the resort driveway! Yes, the one I thought we wouldn't have to do! It was as bad as my car was making it out to be! On one of the hills I managed to go into to my anaerobic zone, which means breathing is extremely strained and you can't talk at all! We ran through it, but that was only 5 miles in so plenty of distance still to go. We had to go back on to the same road we had come up on from the start line. And we came over one of the hills and we could just see people for miles and some people already coming back on us - they were fast! I ended up with a sugar goop thing (like warm sugary phlegm!) at mile 8 which was unpleasant but I think needed the energy to get through the final miles. Remember I had only every run 10 miles maximum and that was nearly a month ago because of my ankle/foot issue! Unfortunately, it was between 9-10 miles I had my first walk I saw a big hill and there was no way. Cecelia had gone on by this stage as she is a faster/better runner. The final three miles were hard there was no other word for it. Those last three were around the golf course at the resort but I didn't manage to take in much of the course as I had issues with calf cramp and my foot hurting lots. So I ended up walking and running. It made me so frustrated as I wanted to run but every time I picked up some speed I got cramp and had to walk it out. I read one of the signs at the edge of the course and it said 'pain is only temporary, pride is forever' - well my pride was to do it in less than 2 hours 30 minutes. As I came into the finishing gates I knew cramp was coming and it hit right at the end, utterly crippling, but a lady came up behind me and said keep going so I limped over the line. Yippee, we did it and that was the important thing :)

PS This is picture of a blue bonnet - it is the time of year when Texas turns blue.

So I have just been to the website to see my results, unfortunately there are no photos of me as the only one of me is my legs behind another person at the finish line! The other ones they associate with me, are not me!

So I came 670th out of 2955 (or 632nd of the 2796 female runners) and did the 13.1 miles in 2:24:36. For my age group that was 142nd out of 567. The other amazing thing was they gave the 10km time and that was a record for me at 0:52:11!!

In all, I feel very satisfied with my first half marathon and there is plenty of room for improvement when you consider the first person came in nearly an hour before me!!! Cecelia and I have already decided we are going to try and sign up for another one in Houston next January. I think I will be giving the one in two weeks time a miss and let my foot heal.

All the aches and pain from the race are nothing compared to my hip flexor, but that will get better soon I am sure. I have a couple of blisters that didn't hurt while running but look pretty impressive. I know I will welcome my massage on Monday!

We were back in Houston before 2pm and the rest of the day has been quiet watching a movie and occasionally jumping up to put the cramp at bay! Tonight we went the Lucky Chinese Buffet and just look at my prawn head puppets!!