Ready-ish for the Women's Half Marathon

I just returned from the Women's Running Magazine Women's Half Marathon expo. It was a great female-centric expo with tons of cute shirts, shoes, bracelets, hats, etc. The pink runneth over in the Nashville Convention Center. Other than vendors, I think I saw one man. Maybe two.

The hilarious thing is that I got my bib number and corral number. I'm in corral 1. (Insert laughter here.) Even on my best of days in my best of races, I'm pretty sure I'm not corral 1 material! I'm wondering what on earth I put as my potential finish time?? I'm positive I didn't put less than 2 hours. My best one last October was 2:09-something. Back when I registered, the focus of the summer was going to be speed, speed, speed, not recovery-reinjury-recovery-reinjury.

I'm hoping to have fun, enjoy the race, and finish with a smile. (Preferably without re-injuring my calf.) My legs are feeling pretty good these days, but my breathing and my endurance are still in recovery mode. In terms of a long run, I went ALL the way up to 9 miles twice. I walked 9 miles about 2 weeks ago. Last weekend, I ran/walked it. What about weekly mileage? I think I got up to 18 miles one week, but then my leg started hurting. This was not a typical training cycle to say the least....

Though this race-preparation experience has not been what I expected, a lot of good has still come from it. I have made at least 15 new friends in my training group (I already knew the other 6). I have had a goal to keep striving for this summer when I felt like my leg was NEVER going to get better. I have a cute new hot pink race shirt. And I get to run a no-performance pressure race tomorrow with 6,000 other women. Worth the $50 I spent, I think!

The goal is to run some, walk a little, run some, walk a little. Or vice versa.

13.1 miles. Bring it.