Zooma Half Marathon

Last weekend I joined three good friends at the Lost Pines resort in the hill country west of Austin for the Zooma Women's half marathon. We shared a hotel room at the resort (by far the most expensive hotel I have ever stayed at!) to avoid an early morning scramble to drive and and meet the shuttle. It was such a treat to have a ladies night away (my first from Charlie ever) but it was a little bit of a let down to have to try to go to bed early so we could get some rest. No all night giggle fest sadly. Another time!

Race morning was the perfect running temp of 57 degrees. It was chilly at the finish line but felt awesome during the run. The race made a couple of loops throughout the beautiful tree lined resort filled with wildflowers and some MONSTER hills. The first seven miles were a complete roller coaster but luckily the last few miles were pretty flat.

During the last couple of weeks my knee was been really bothering me during my runs. I got really nervous about injuring myself before the race so I pretty much quit running the last couple of weeks before the race in hopes that by giving it a rest my knee would heal itself. I was really nervous about how my knee would hold up during the race but gratefully, it felt great. It started bothering me a little about mile 3 but it never got bad enough to really slow me down.

I was hoping to get under two hours and I came in at 1:57 which is just under 9 minute mile pace, cutting about 8 minutes off of my first half which I ran in 2:05. I felt pretty awesome since a year ago I could only run a 5k in about 35 minutes. Go me!

 My cute friend Amber who I try to run my long training runs with. If I can keep up! She dominated and came in about 10 minutes before I did.

All the awesome ladies I spent the weekend with: Amber, Sheyenne, me and Jamie. It was Sheyenne and Jamie's first half and they rocked it! We're looking forward to finding another race to run in together.