A Shiny New PR

Yesterday, I ran another half marathon.

...and so did Ryan
...and a couple of our friends.

Ryan's friend, Jonathan, came along for his first half marathon and my friend and coworker, Sarah, came along for her first 5K...or so she thought.

Saturday, when we arrived in Germantown, TN, we headed directly to pick up our packets. To make a long story short, we talked Sarah into upgrading her registration to the half-marathon. She decided to run with Jonathan and Ryan who were a bit under-trained for this one and would be alternating walking/jogging.

I wanted a PR. A Personal Record. I was getting close with my last race at 2:04. My personal record for the half marathon was 1:59:58, which was set with my very first half marathon...7 years ago. It was time to break it.

I ran 15 miles the week before the race. My 13.1 split was 1:56. I could do it. I knew I could. This was going to be the race to prove myself to...well, just to myself, but I still wanted to do it. And to make another long (13.1 miles long) story, short. I did it! I pushed myself, my hip felt fine, I stayed well hydrated, the weather was great, the planets aligned, I pushed myself, and I did it! 1:55:53 was the magic number that broke my 7 year-old PR by 4 minutes and beat my most recent race, just 3 weeks ago by 9 minutes.

I'm super excited about my own accomplishment, but I'm equally, if not more so, excited that Ryan also beat his old time by more than 15 minutes, and Sarah and Jonathan ran their very first race...a half marathon! That's huge!



Come on now, why the look of pain and exhaustion?

That's a little better.

Here we are (left to right: Sarah, Ryan, Me, Jonathan).

After some showers (there are a lot of horse statues in Germantown).

We are already looking for our next race. We have our eyes on a mud-run just 3 weeks away. Sounds like a ton of fun. Any suggestions for other spring races?