The Zyriek Zoo: Germantown Half Marathon

I have been training since late December for the St. Jude Country Music Half Marathon which is April 28th in Nashville. This is the first year that the event benefits St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, so I thought I would give it a shot. I have been working with Lesley Brainard as a running coach and that has definitely given me perspective but also focus on what I am doing each week. Along the way of training for the Nashville event, I thought it would be a good test to run the Germantown Half Marathon. We would treat this as a "long run" and not a race and see how my efforts paid off.

Well, I bombed this long run or this test. It just was not my day at all. Gary has been doing all of my long weekend runs with me which has helped keep me motivated. He is a fast runner which is the opposite of me, but according to Gary I have become pretty strong and to my own credit I have not skipped or missed a single workout since starting to work with Lesley. Gary ran with me for the Germantown half. Mentally I just was not in this race. Gary said he could tell from about mile 1 or 2 but it took me a few miles to figure out that I was not strong that day and every mile was going to be a struggle. Here were my list of complaints: It was hot, my race number was bothering me, my heart rate monitor was not on tight enough, people were passing me in droves, the sun was in my face, Gary's friends were about to finish and I was just halfway done and so on. It was definitely not a good day for me and poor Gary just kept running alongside me. I finished in 2:26 which was about 15 minutes slower than I wanted to be. Of course I know that I am better than that. I did 13 miles with Gary about 2 weeks before the race closer to 2:10 or less, so I know I can do it. Chalk this race up to a training run that went poorly and I have to keep training.

Nashville is only 6 weeks after the Germantown race, so I know that I have a few long runs ahead. Nashville will be challenging. I will be running alone, but at least there will be lots of entertainment!! It is hillier, but hopefully with some of my training efforts being focused on hills, I won't be so intimidated.

Thanks to our cheerleaders during the race. Dad and Julie met us at the entrance to Houston High School which is mile 6 and the exit which was after mile 7. They were great cheerleaders 2x for us. Megan and Kyle made us a sign around mile 10 which was great. Mom, Dan and the girls were at the finish line. The girls had made signs with us on the podium and with medals on. They were so proud. Even though I was mad at myself and disappointed in my efforts, they made me smile because they were very proud and they did not even care about the time on the clock!!