Get Lucky 1/2 Marathon Recap

Wrong date and wrong place! Right Race! lol

In the midst of all of my traveling, I was registered to run my 2nd Race in Team Ortho Race Series: The Get Lucky Triple 7!!

This was my 3rd time running the Get Lucky race, but my first time running the 1/2 marathon. I was initially signed up to run the 7k, as I had in prior years, but as I have said before, my goal is to run fourteen 1/2 marathons during 2014, so I switch my registration to the 1/2.

Cut her off now!!

This race was run on Saturday, March 15th, after a crazy week of travel for me! I had been in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin  <-- exactly?! It is right outside of Milwaukee. I was there for my very favorite work-related conference of the year: Link Crew.

On wednesday, my co-coordinators and I drove to Oconomowoc, which took just about 6 hours!! Yuck!  After that is was 2 full days of being inspired through play! Link Crew is an amazing program that I am so proud to be part of! Link Crew coordinators work HARD, and we play even harder!! I spent both Wednesday and Thursday night drinking heavily! For those of you who know me well, you know I rarely drink, and when I do, I am a total lightweight!! I pretty much broke all of my pre-race rules, and just let go and had a great time!!

Playing w/ Nerf guns in a bar!!

On Friday night, we made our way back to Minnesota, it was a LONG drive after a long day of conferencing! What made it even worse, was that I had to drive an extra hour up to my sister's apartment so that we could wake up early and race!!

I was beyond exhausted when I got to Anne's, and my calves were cramping so badly!! I had no clue how I was going to manage a 1/2 marathon in just a few short hours!

Morning came much too soon for me. We quickly dressed (we are becoming pros at getting ready for races!) and got in the car. It was a short drive to St. Paul, and while we were very early for the race, we easily found a parking spot!!

Waiting in the car -- fun times!

This race is always a crap-shoot, March can be really cold  -- last year was FREEZING!! -- or it can be nice -- two years ago it was over 70 degrees!! You never really know what you are going to get with this race, but we lucked out, it wasn't warm, but it wasn't freezing either. It was comfortable running weather, in my opinion, about 40 degrees!

Team Ortho did a really nice job for this race! They allowed runners to use the Grand Station, as a warming "hut". There was music, real bathrooms and places to sit!! It was a real luxury compared to the freezing cold parking garage for Polar Dash!!

After using the bathroom, and dropping off our bags, we made out way to the starting line. We took our time and didn't have long to wait until the gun went off and we started.

The first mile felt amazing! I kept a 9 minute/mile pace, and was feeling surprisingly good!

Miles 2 and 3 were not so successful, but I even expect them to be, it always take me a good 3 miles to really warm up and fall into my pace.

The course was hilly, lots of ups and downs, which kept it interesting, and made the miles until the turn around go by very quickly. I really don't remember most of the first half of the race, except for feeling really good!

At the turn around there was a photographer, and I got my first "good" race photo!! Woo!! I was happy and feeling awesome!

After the turn around it was all hills again, up and down and up again. I glanced at my watch and noticed that I was making pretty good time! Go me!!!

This was the first 1/2 of the year that I ran just for me!! Polar Dash was so cold, that I just couldn't move, and then came Tink and PHM (Um….photos?!), so I had not really run a real "race" and I was finally allowing myself to just run!!

Faster than I expected, I was at mile 12 and still feeling strong! I pushed through mile 13 and crossed the finish line with a new 1/2 marathon PR and my 7th overall 1/2 marathon finish!!

This was 1/2 marathon #4 for the year!! 10 more to go!!!

Now I need to get back into a good training mode!! I'm wondering if all the drinking and late nights had anything to do with my PR?!?! Hmmmm.

The rest of the weekend was full of more driving, and a champagne brunch for my Grandma's birthday!  I was beyond exhausted by Monday!!

What are your pre-race rules? Do you ever break them?