Diva Half Marathon

I can check South Carolina off the list! It almost didn't happen. The night before the race I wasn't sure it was going to happen. On Saturday I started to feel sick, so much so that I spent two hours sleeping in the car while everyone else played pickleball. I took some medicine and drank two chai lattes to soothe my throat and prayed that I'd feel better in the morning. It's not every weekend you get to do a destination race and I was going to be extremely disappointed if I couldn't run.

Well, Sunday morning I felt better, albeit not 100%, but felt that I could run. Like all my other spring races, this was a fun race and I didn't have a time goal. Since this was a diva race, I wanted to dress the part. This was the first time I've ever worn any sort of skirt in a race, but I highly recommend sparkle skirts. They are lightweight and made to be worn over running shorts. You can hardly tell you have on anything extra when you're running, which is important when you're running in hot weather.

The race started out well. This was the first time we'd stayed in a hotel within walking distance to the start, and it was a very nice perk. We were able to get to the starting line easily with no hassle, so we had plenty of time to get a good starting spot in the corral. My mom started with the 5Kers, then we were off! The first few miles were shady and it wasn't too hot yet. I felt pretty good until Mile 6- then I started having stomach problems. "Bathroom problems" are one of my worst fears of a race, but I wasn't about to stop for that.

Miles 7-8 were hard because there wasn't as much shade and it was getting hotter. The first stretch of Mile 9 I would say was the worst part of the course because it was along a busy highway and there was also no shade. But that only lasted for a short bit, then we began to weave through neighborhoods and scenic areas with trees and SHADE!! By the end of the race, I could tell I was not feeling my best. My stomach still hurt and I was having flu-like symptoms: feeling overheated, headache, cold sweats, etc. I didn't start to feel really bad until the last few miles. My dad jumped in to run the last mile with me, which was good encouragement to finish strong.

Overall, a very fun destination race (despite not feeling well)! The course was mostly flat and scenic and the bling at the end was being handed out by hot firefighters. Totally didn't know that was coming up, or I would've had my camera ready. They had champagne at the end and I got a boa and tiara. And the best part about the end- again the hotel was RIGHT there. We were able to watch other racers finishing from our hotel.

I finished in 2:07:29. Overall pace: 9:43 min/mile.
The first half of the race was faster than the second half.
6 mile split 55:58  (pace: 9:19 min/mile)

*The next day, driving back, I came down with the full-fledged FLU! So basically the reason I was so miserable and felt so bad during the last half of the race was because I was running while sick.