Mezza (Half) Maratona (Marathon)

Before too much time passes by I guess I should let you know that my convention and following half marathon race went okay. I did learn something valuable about myself in both instances. The convention: the speakers were all very good and there was always a crowd of people seated listening to whoever was on the podium. The best speaker and the one that drew the largest crowd was of course the doctor that spoke about FOOD! Food allergies and myths about them and how they can help or hinder your race performance. Anyway, back to the opening of the convention...I gave my opening (3 minutes) and then started down the list of who would be speaking. I came upon the coach of two Olympic gold medalers...and drew a blank! Yikes! Then I had to look down at my paper, no light, and try and make out the names. After that I was shaky and kept kicking myself for it. The race: it was supposed to rain, but then it didn't. In place of the rain there were head winds for the entire thirteen miles! Ugh! It was really difficult fighting them. I tried to tuck in behind other runners but sometimes it just wasn't possible, other times there was nobody around. The last two miles were the most difficult and I probably lost another minute right there. I managed to come in at 1h59'15", my first sub two hour run in a zillion years. The lesson: I can never pat myself on the back and be proud of what I did. For the convention, even though I got lots of compliments I just kept kicking myself for that one 4 second hesitation. The race? Before it I said I'd be thrilled with a sub two hour. Afterwards instead of being thrilled all I could thing about was what kind of race I could have had without the wind. There's a lesson for me here, I just gotta dig it out...