A Memorial Day Half

I ran the Striders Memorial Day Half-Marathon yesterday and had a good run. This is my second time so I knew what to expect - an out and back course and pretty flat. I woke up at 4:45 a.m. and arrived at the start/finish at 6:00 a.m. to pick-up my bib, shirt and timing chip.

The director started the race at 6:45 and we were off. A girl and I started running in sync with each other and stayed together for the first three miles. After mile three, she dropped back and I picked-up two male runners and stayed with them until mile seven where I dropped back a bit but still kept them within eyesight. In this small of a race, it was nice to have someone help me keep pace. I wore my Big Sur shirt and as I passed a group of runners, I heard one of them say, "That's the race I really want to do!"

As I came to mile 11.5, the course crosses the entrance of the parking lot. As I was running I heard, "Go Marcie!" and looked up to see my mom, nieces and nephew in the car just pulling into the parking lot. They were coming to see me finish. Great timing! They parked the car and found the finish line in time to see me finish in 1:46:45. A new PR.

There were a total of 193 runners that ran the half. I came in 5th out of 41 in my age division, 11th out of all 95 females and 46th out of the total 193 runners.