Race Recap: Towpath Half Marathon

People! Kali's out of town because she ran the Chicago Marathon on Sunday...so, go check out my guest post today over at Finishing Firsts about yin yoga for runners! 

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If the Cleveland Marathon was a 10 on the pre-race anxiety scale, this race was a 1.

And I like 1's a lot better!

Not gonna lie, I left work on Friday feeling like, I should be more nervous or more prepared for this race...but oh well! (Or "swaha" as my yoga teacher would say)

You know what? We did A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

I ended up running my second fasted half ever, and Brandon PRed! 

2:04:40

(for those of you with bad eye-sight, like me)

Seriously, people, it was birthday weekend. I gorged on sugary sweets and one too many glasses of red wine on Friday night. I guess that's how I should do it every time. 

Actually, I'm the most happy with how the race went because I didn't commit to a training schedule. I ran a couple times a week and a few races and probably one or two long runs. Ha! Running was almost an afterthought actually.

What I did do was a lot of cross training: 

Yoga (loads of it)

Body-weight circuits

Walking the pups (probably should have happened more often)

I honestly felt good the whole time. A little fatigued at the end, but it felt like we were cruising for the first 7 miles or so. We stopped for a few walk breaks to drink water, but overall had a really solid race.

This is a race that I would totally consider coming back to do the marathon next year (er...maybe in a few years). It's an awesomely flat course and it's beautiful! The towpath in the fall is probably my favorite time to run it.

Sunday's race also sealed the deal on half marathons for me - the half is far and away my favorite distance! My reasoning?

• Training for a half doesn't take up your entire life like a full does (and in this particular case, it hardly took up any of my life, although I would have liked to get in a few more longer runs)
• I feel much better running a half than a full. For some reason I ALWAYS die in the second half of a marathon. Maybe it's my training, or lack thereof, but I love being done after 13 miles. 
• After I finish a half, I'm not burnt out from running. Usually I need a good solid break from running after a full marathon. Not so much with a half.
• I honestly think I can PR a half. I'm not so confident in my ability to PR a marathon at this point.

That's not to say I'm not going to run full marathons. When the time comes and I'm ready again, I totally will. In the meantime, I'm going to keep on running and loving my half marathons. I know that I can keep up my half marathon endurance if I just keep on doing what I've been doing, and I absolutely love that.

What a great birthday weekend! Smiles all around!!