More/Fitness Magazine Women's Half-Marathon

Huh, well apparently I took a little break from blogging! It was totally unintentional; I kept thinking about writing a post, but it just didn't happen. Oops!

I want to start by saying that my heart goes out to all the runners, families, and friends who were affected by the Boston Marathon bombings. The running community is so amazing, one that I feel truly blessed to be a part of, and to have it attacked felt very personal, even though I don't know anyone in real life who was in Boston that day. The response has truly been heartwarming and has made me love runners that much more. I also think law-enforcement deserves a tremendous amount of gratitude for putting their own lives on the line to catch these guys!

On a much brighter note, I ran my 5th half-marathon last weekend, the More/Fitness Women's Half-marathon in Central Park. This was my first women's only race and it was pretty inspirational to see women of all ages, shapes and sizes running and/or walking this race.

The weather was absolutely spectacular, just cool enough and the sun was shining brightly. I was so, so calm on the way to this race for some reason. I stayed at a hotel about a mile from the race start, and made my way down 5th Avenue on Sunday morning; I love walking around midtown early on weekends cause it is so much more pleasant before all the crowds arrive!

I knew this race was going to be challenging, what with all the hills, but I still had a secret goal of breaking 2:20. So far my fastest race had been just under 2:25 but I felt as though I had worked harder this training cycle, incorporating hills, some speed, and doing my long runs faster than I have in the past. 

I'll admit they really weren't kidding when they warned us about the hills, but I managed to push through them and cherish the downhill portions of the race! Looking back at my splits I managed to keep a fairly steady pace throughout the race. There were times I felt I was trudging through mud and was pleasantly surprised when I looked at my watch and found I was moving a lot faster than I thought. The last few miles were pretty rough, but I knew that I was still on track for a PR so I just kept pushing. I was beyong thrilled when I crossed the finish line and knew I had made it under 2:20 - my official time is 2:18:44!

I really loved everything about this race. Of course, the fact that it was in NYC has something to do with that ;) But I found it really well-organized, the crowd support was great, and just the atmosphere in general made it an amazing experience. I would definitely do this race again :)

Has anyone else had an awesome race lately? Or one coming up?