2 Medals In 2 Weekends Take 2

I don't know if you remember this, or for any new followers out there, last year I did the Double Header 2 half marathons in 2 days. I did it with a friend and it was so much fun. So we both signed up to do it again. She got injured at Boston, and wasn't able to do both races this year. 

I was still registered and decided to do both. The Bird-in-Hand Half marathon is an awesome race. It's well organized. It's beautiful, and I can't say enough about it. But this year it was hot - very hot - felt like Africa hot (ok.. never been but guessing). And I still decided that I wanted to try to 'race' it since I wasn't able to do my June half that I was registered for. 

Well, things didn't turn out as I had hoped. In fact, it was one of the most defeating Half Marathons I have done. I think I finished around 2:29, but it was the overall feeling of defeat from about mile 2.5. I got chills at mile 5, and at that point I knew that I was really done. It was more of a walk/shuffle for a lot of the race. But mentally, overall, it was not fun. Nothing about it was fun and that was more disappointing to me than a timed goal. In fact, after the race, in addition to being sick in a portapotty, I also wound up crying for quite some time. In fact, I wasn't sure at that time if I would attempt Half Marathon #2 the following day. 

(Me, trying not to cry after the finish) 

But since I was already registered, and I knew that there would be a lot of people from my running group, River Runners, so I decided to go ahead and give it a try.. 

The weather on Sunday was much much different than the weather on Saturday. It was much cooler with less humidity. And really I felt pretty good except for around mile 4ish my stomach started bothering me. So I stopped at a portapotty and was there for 4 minutes. Yep, 4 minutes wasted. And so I thought I might just walk the rest of the race. It was a beautiful day and I thought I would just enjoy the scenery. But then I realized, well, that's a really long way to walk, and it's going to take a really long time. 

So I started running. And then I realized I could probably still come close to my original goal of 2:20 for the day. And well, I wasn't far off. I came in at 2:22 and some change. According to my garmin, my run time was 2:18. But it wasn't about the time on Sunday as much as it felt like I was running strong. Saturday's run - there didn't feel anything strong about it - or positive. But Sunday felt much stronger mentally and physically. 

So, I did it again. 2 Medals in 2 Days. Would I do it again? Yeah, if I have friends doing it. But I would much rather do it as a 'fun' run verses a race type thing. 

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