Zooma Half Marathon

ZOOMA Half marathon Lost Pines Bastrop,Texas 

March 10, 2018

The night before my race stayed at the Lost Pines Hyatt Hotel, where the race was held. I had a nice room with a balcony overlooking a butterfly garden. My friend Michelle (who was running the 10k) came and stayed with me. We dined on a nice Buffet with scrumptious dessert, then both crashed early so we could be well rested for the race. 

(I know, 2 weeks of no sweets and I blew it the night before the race, oops! Notsosorry)

It was 65°,cloudy,and humid when the race started. About an hour into it the sun started to come out but it didn’t get too hot. It probably was 75° by the time I was done running. We started at 7:40 am. Another friend of mine also was running the half, Jeana. 

(Michelle's first 10k!) 

They had us line up roughly by our pace. 

The day before the race I told some friends that I wasn't nervous about the race, just excited. While waiting at the start line some nerves started creeping in. Thanks to experienced racer Jeana, I learned what the numbers on sticks were, pacer times.  My goal was to beat my previous race of 2:26:51, so I had to stay between the 2:15 and 2:30 pacers. 

I had a good playlist to listen to, not as regimented in songs attached to people as last year, but still fun associations in my brain. For example, "Thunder" by Imagine Dragons I associate with the football game I went to last Thanksgiving with my brother Devin and sister-in-law Marnie. It's also a great song to run to.  I downloaded another app specifically for this race called Motigo. Friends could record messages to be played at certain mile markers. Some race sponsors also left messages during the course that were motivational. At mile One Virginia left me a message, she said she picked mile one because I’m number one! I almost started crying listening to her message, I hadn't expected to hear from somebody so soon and certainly didn't expect to get all emotional about it. At mile number Four I got a message from Virginia's daughter Evelyn, she said she picked number four because she is four. She said, “ go Tia Tamera, run fast Tia Tamara, you can do it to Tia Tamara, in the name of Jesus Christ amen, and remember Jesus loves you”. I LOVED this! 

Miles 2-4, then 7-10 were the toughest for me, it included a lot of hills. The first time around my legs were fresh though and at the 10K mark I had done it in an hour and that made me really excited for my time. However repeating the loop a second time was very challenging for me. At mile seven I got a message from 2 year old Nicholas telling me go go go, and said he loved me. That helped. Also by mile 8 the water stop had Gu- a gel with carbs, electrolytes and a bit of caffeine to help fuel depleted system. This is also around when the sun came out and it got hotter. 

At some point the Motigo app had a message from a sponsor that gave me the mantra, "Forward is a pace".  Who knew something so simple would help me. Around mile 9 I wanted to stop. It was hard, hilly, and I was slow. Much of the hills I walked for 20-30 second periods, but at mile 9 I started to stop on the side of the road, but then I said to myself, "No! Forward is a pace", and I kept moving. 
I knew at the end of mile 10 I was going to get a long stretch of downhill, then it would be 3 miles of golf course and I'd be done! 

And at mile 10 Nick left me a message telling me to keep pushing it and to treat myself to pizza afterwards.
I also got messages from Michelle sister Laura and her mother, and Michelle. Having encouraging messages was very awesome.

Jeana found me with less then 1/4 of a mile till finish line

Second half marathon, official time 2:26:41. My first was 2:26:51. This one was significantly harder so I’m very proud of my time. It was also great knowing that Michelle was going to be at the finish line as well as Jeana Baldwin. Jeana finished in an hour and 47 minutes taking second place in her age group. She’s awesome. Michelle did the 10K, her first 10K in an hour and 17 minutes I think. I felt so accomplished and so very sore the same time. 

Jeana got 2nd place in her age group!  She pretty much rocks. 

And Michelle said she would consider doing it again. 

My right hip held out pretty good, and the tiny cut on my left second toe did bother me at all!

I celebrated my personal victory by going to Alamo Drafthouse to watch "Wrinkle in Time" with Bridgid and in addition to her company, enjoyed my favorite Chocolate Peanut Butter shake and a pizza (see Nick, I ate pizza!)

This morning I am hobbling around owning my stiffness like a badge of honor.  I can do hard things. I CAN DO HARD THINGS!  Now if I was to subject myself to that again I would train for hills better, and strengthen my hip abductors better as well...but I can do hard things.