ZOOMA Half Marathon Race Report

Yesterday morning I had the privelege of running the ZOOMA Austin half marathon with 4 of my running friends.  It was the most fun race I have run so far.  It was held in Bastrop near the beautiful Lost Pines Resort (which my husband and I stayed at for Valentine's weekend).  I have been running with a couple of these girls for years now, and we managed to recruit some other unsuspecting runners from church to join us for this race (muahahaha!).  We wore matching t-shirts, tie dyed purple, and were easy to spot along the course.  It was fun hearing cheers for "Team Purple"!

The Austin ZOOMA is known for its hilly course.  We were sufficiently freaked out in our preparations for the challenge.  But we trained well for it, and it paid off.  As the miles ticked off we were in awe of how great we felt.  I, for one, am a very serious runner.  I get in the zone and am so focused that I usually miss some of the visual details of the race course.  But I felt so free at the start of this race that I found myself taking note of the beautiful scenery and goofing off with my friends... I even did a few grand jetes (that's ballet talk) down one of the hills.  Lol.

My spirits stayed high until mile 9 or so.  I'd had some tightness in my right calf but usually any little aches or pains I feel(if any) are pretty short lived and I am able to stay loose and get through it alright.  I knew however from a  chiropractor appointment the day before that my muscles were tight, "injury prone tight" as the doc put it.  So I spent most of the day before the race stretching and got a massage.  Well, the tightness increased after mile 9.  We hit our last hill somewhere just before or after mile 10 and I decided to walk it, hoping it would naturally stretch out the muscle so that I wouldn't have to walk off course and stretch it while standing still, thus losing time.  My team slowed down for a bit with me.  I was relieved while walking but when I began running again I started getting sharp pains in my calf muscle.  This resulted in me slowing down overall, after which my legs began feeling heavy, and I just lost momentum all together.  My team pulled ahead of me further and further and I was feeling pretty discouraged.  I did the best I could though - walking, then running.  Tried picking up my pace a little as mile 12 approached... I could still see my team and thought maybe I could close in the gap with a little will power. Soon a cramp set in and I found myself hop/running by the time I reached the finish line.  But I crossed that finish line, and only 6 or so minutes behind my team. 

Our goal had been 2:20.  They finished around 2:29 and I came in just under 2:35.  Wasn't my fastest finish time, but it wasn't my slowest either1  And given all the hills, I am proud of my all-in-all performance.  But I have a desire to start AND finish a race as well as this one felt in the beginning.  I have definitely improved in my last 18 months of running, that much is obvious to me.  So I have high hopes for future races!

I don't have a lot of pictures to share this time, beleive it or not I was not the one with a camera!  These were taken using my iPhone, and when my friends email me some others, I'll be sure to add them.