Emerald City Half Marathon Recap

Another race, another recap! I was pretty excited for this race with the unseasonably cool temperatures we had been having...notice I say HAD. The week of the Emerald City race was the hottest and most humid of the whole summer.

I spent Saurday evening in the suburb of Columbus near the race start. It is about 25 minutes from where I grew up and it's always good to be "home". I had my new favorite pre-race steak dinner (thanks to Kelsey and Brittney!) at Outback with my bridesmaid and beautiful friend Karley. Afterward we went to play with some puppies.

I wanted this little girl in a bad way, but our apartment can't handle two huskies.

I headed to bed around 9:00 and my alarm was set for 5:30. My throat felt a little sore after dinner but I thought it was just due to my love of the air conditioner keeping everything at below-arctic temperatures. I laid out my "flat Lindsat" and was ready to run with 3500 new friends in the morning.

5:30 came and I still had my sore throat but otherwise felt okay. I chugged water the day before trying to ensure I'd be hydrated and woke up to chug another liter. It was 70 degrees and 90% humidity at the starting line at 6:45AM. Yikes. It wasn't too long before I spotted Julie who I had met on Instagram and we had planned to see each other at the race. She was so so sweet and I immediately felt like we'd known each other for years. 

The race started at 7:00 after the national anthem was played. It was advertised as a flat course, a welcome change from hilly Cincinnati. The Columbus Marathon only has 100 feet of elevation change throughout the whole course and I was expecting something similar for this race. I was a little bit wrong but I made it through. 

My goal as I had been talking about was to run this entire race. I felt super good the whole time and was pacing myself appropriately, averaging a pace around 11:50 minute/mile. At the water stop around mile 10 I sort of lost my mojo. I had been keeping up with a gentleman and chatting with him off and on as we went. I run through water stops but I made the mistake of slowing down and just couldn't get myself consistently running again. It was so, so humid, I was DRENCHED in sweat, and the race was pretty small so the crowd support was limited out on the course. (I do have to give a big shout out to Corinne, Mrs. Loose, and Julie for being awesome cheerleaders! Corinne even made me a sign and waited the whole race for me to finish!)

I saw the firefighter relay running in FULL GEAR and using oxygen tanks out on the course, ahead of me, and that was pretty inspiring to say the least, especially considering the heat of the day. They also finished before me. Holy smokes.

(Photo credit to Corinne)

I found myself rounding the last corner and seeing civilization again and ran to the finish - 2:50:41 - and 10 minutes better than the Flying Pig and only 4 minutes from a PR. As the temps start to fall I fully expect to beat my PR at least once this race season.

I enjoyed the race and would definitely do it again! On to the Air Force half in Dayton in September!