Millarville Half Marathon ... The race where I learn I can do hard things

Saturday Kyle and I left the house at 4:30 am. This is nuts! Why would anyone leave their house at that crazy hour? Well for a race of course. We were running in the inaugural Millarville Half Marathon, dubbed the Hillbilly Half by some. It was a rural race from Black Diamond to the Millarville Racetrack and Farmers Market. I was really looking forward to this race. It was billed as a net downhill course. Ha! Net downhill includes a lot of freaking big hills.
Here's Kyle and I at the start line, happy to be running and racing together. Although we don't run together. That man is crazy fast, he'll post about his race later I'm sure, but I'll just hint that he finished with the front of the pack. Speedy husband.

We met up with some other minimalist and barefoot friends at the race. Here's our picture with 4 different shoe/no shoe options. Kyle in the styling pink laced invisible shoe, me in my Lemmings, our friend Maria sporting her stylish Hattoris (she ended up with 2 major blisters though), and our friend Neil in his bare feet. Neil was one of inspirations for us to ditch our shoes and learn to run bare.

Going into this race I was unsure of how I would do. I was hoping to get a PR. After the first 3K I knew a PR was not in my future. Leading up to this race things were tough for me. After a fall on a trail run, asthma that was flaring up from all the pollen and an increase in my abdominal pain leaving me with very little to eat that didn't hurt, I probably wasn't in the best shape for this race. Looking back my last long run before this race was actually my last Half Marathon in May a whole month ago.
This race was a major head game for me. It was hard. You know how when you're running after a certain distance or time you really hit your stride? You feel like you're flying and get into the groove. Well there was no flying for me this race. Every step felt hard and my head was telling me to stop. Ugh! On top of that I was trying a new water system. I bought a fuel belt camelback to carry my water. With the increase in my abdominal pain my normal fuel belt that goes around my waist was way too painful to use. Well like they say don't do anything new on race day. Well I learned my lesson. My hose was kinked so I could only get very tiny sips of water. Ugh! I don't normally use aid stations because I am super nervous about what I eat/drink. So many things make me so sick that I avoid unknown drinks and food. After not getting any water for the first half of the race I decided that I really needed to start drinking at the aid stations. The first one I stopped at I swear I could have gulped down 3 or 4 cups of water. I didn't though because I knew that I'd probably throw up with too much in my stomach. Really there isn't much else to report. I finished in 2:03:xx. Runkeeper race info. Not bad at all but not a PR for me. My first Half in finished in 2:02:xx. Granted my first half I was a heel striking cushy shoe runner with bad form.
So the good from this race? Well I learned that I can do hard things. I finished even when things weren't going well. I finished in a pretty good time even with way too little training. I also learned something new about myself. I am not a quitter. See I always thought of myself as a quitter. When things got hard I would quit. I didn't finished University but switched to Bible College, I didn't finish Bible College and instead got married. I started and didn't finished Midwifery school, trying to do internship with five young children didn't make sense to me. I always had a good reason to quit or maybe a good excuse, but I always told myself that I was just a quitter. Saturday's race was probably one of the hardest things I have done both mentally and physically, and I didn't quit. I could have. I could have turned around 3K in like I wanted to. I could have slowed way down, even walked a lot more but I didn't I pushed as hard as I could in the condition I was in. When I crossed the finish line I was spent. I really left everything I had out on the course. Sure I'd be happier if I could have PRed, but I am very happy with how I did. I couldn't have run any harder, I gave it all. Really that is all I can do.
Here's the video of my finish thanks to speedy Kyle.

Going forward I am hoping to do some things differently
-- train more regularly
-- find out how to fuel enough to build up a good glycogen base
-- figure out my camelback
-- ditch my shoes and concentrate more on building my barefoot base
-- stop worrying about times and PRs and focus on how much I love to run
So there's my plan. My goal it to run my next Half Marathon barefoot. It is at the end of September and I think I can get there. So here's to running more free, free from my shoes, free from my ego that says I have to be faster, and free from pressure that I put on myself to be the best. I am going to run like I love it because I do.
Robbie
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