My First Half Marathon

This last summer I decided to run the Mackinaw Island Great Turtle Half Marathon with a couple of my girl friends. The only other race I had run was a 5k, so it was an ambitious goal. I started a training routine that consisted of 2 short runs and 1 long run a week for about 10 weeks. I trained at a nice steady pace of about 10min miles so that was my goal pace for the race.

On October 23rd we headed over to Mackinaw City and stayed in a hotel for the night. The next morning be got up bright and early and caught the ferry over to the island. It was near 40 degrees and cloudy for the day of the race, kind of chilly until we all started running.

The race started around 11am and consisted of about 2-3 miles of road running, a long stretch of trail running, and then ended with another couple miles of road. I seemed to be slower than most people on the road but faster on the hills and trails.

I finished the race in about 2hr 10min which is exactly on my 10 min per mile pace!!

The only bummer was that I didn't eat nearly enough calories before the race and so I got really low blood sugar after the race. After forcing down some food and Powerade things seemed to get better. Overall is was a great race!

I would definitely consider doing another!

This was me just after finishing. Somehow I managed to sprint the last quarter mile or so to the finish. I even got a participation metal.