19

Back to Reality

I crushed the run yesterday with my little brother. I ran a 1:36 and my brother ran a 1:38. Not bad for a couple of hobby runners. The race was at 8 AM and I woke up at around 6. I didn’t want to eat too much so I just at an apple and had a cold brew Dunkin Donuts coffee. I went to Shop Rite the night before and picked up the cold brew and looked for energy chews but they didn’t have any.

My dad drove us to the race. We got to the race at around 7:20 and picked up our race packets. My mom was looking at the race website the night before and got me worried because it said we had to pick up our packets at an earlier date. I actually had a dream that we were able to get our packets just fine though and for whatever reason that calmed me down. Once we got to the race I walked over to the people working the race and it didn’t phase them at all. It seemed like they were expecting people to pick up their packets at the race.

We were told to wear masks before and after the race but they were pretty relaxed about it. I kept my mask on before the race but some racers didn’t. It was so cold I actually ran the first couple of miles with the mask on because it was keeping my face warm. It was pretty cold when we got there. It was like 50 degrees and my brother and I were in shorts. It’s an interesting dilemma because you want to warm up but also don’t want to tire yourself out. I always have the attitude that I want to conserve as much energy as I can for the race. I wore my sweatshirt right up until the race started.

The race started and my brother and I got off to a good start. I was conservative with estimated finishing time (2 hours) so we started around 10 minutes after the first starters. This put us behind people who were slower than us. We spent the whole race passing people. This I actually found pretty helpful. It motivated me to pass these runners which probably quickened my time.

Our first 3 miles we ran at 7:09, 6:54, and 6:55 and these were quicker than I was expecting. I wanted to run a “negative split” (running your slowest mile first and quickest mile last) but I knew this wasn’t going to happen when I heard those times. My brother was monitoring the miles while we were running with his phone. I was tracking the run on my phone as well but I had my phone in an armband. Brother didn’t have one so he held his phone for the whole race. That had to be annoying.

We ran right next to each other for the first 9 miles. Once we got to the 10th mile we were trading places with this one runner. We would pass him and then he would pass us. This happened a couple of times and sparked my competitive juices. I told brother that I was going to take off. We approached a hill and I passed the other runner and he never passed me again. I had a good burst at this point and gained some distance. Eventually I slowed down a bit and noticed that he had cut the distance and was right on my tail. This motivated me again and I gave the last burst that I had. This final burst carried me to the finish line.

I crossed the line with 1:46 on the clock but I started around 10 minutes behind the first starters so my official time was 1:36. After I crossed the finish line I saw the runner who I was going back and forth with. We talked for a second and he seemed like a really nice guy. He said I was a good rabbit and helped him set his best time. This was his 3rd half marathon. My brother crossed the line at 1:38 and eventually my older brother came over with my parents. We took some pictures and hung out in the park for a little.

My little brother and I snagged Playa Bowl on the way back. Those bowls are dank. Grabbed one for my dad too but he just put it in the fridge for later. We all hung out at my parent’s house until around 4 and then my older brother and I both went back to our apartments. We had a nice afternoon hanging out and watching football and soccer.

When I got back to my apartment I had a couple friends come over and we watched football and basketball. My one friend brought some whiskey over and I had a couple glasses of that. It felt nice and loosened my legs up a bit. I didn’t think I was going to be able to toss a football around but after a couple of glasses it was quite easy. The basketball game was great too and it looks like it might be a pretty competitive series.

I had a great weekend.