Happy Feet

Hey y'all, sorry it has been a week since I have visited this little corner of the internet; life has been BUSY.
This weekend we were down the Cape for a few days for the Hyannis Half Marathon and gone are the days where we can be gone for the weekend and just wing it for the week. Sunday evening was all about laundry and food prep and foam rolling and vacuuming the new layer of salt from this terrible winter we have been having and then all the sudden I woke up and it was Wednesday.
But, I digress.
It was a lovely weekend and one that I was more than happy to scramble around to make up for just to have the sunshine on my face and quality time with my favorite people for a few days.

My half marathon was...ok. I used my Garmin watch for the first time in a race and enjoyed being able to keep an eye on my pace as I started out. I wanted to go fast but not too fast in order to avoid a burn out, so I tried to stay between 9:20 and 9:35, which I did for the first five miles. After that, I just slowed down and was not able to keep a fast pace, which was definitely a little frustrating because I really wanted to finish in as close two hours as possible. In hindsight, I think that running 7 miles the day before to make up for a lost training day was not the best idea, and my poor shoes were not making my feet as happy as they could have been and, lets be honest, I probably don't push myself as hard as I could. Sure, I kept a good (for me) pace and didn't walk or stop for breaks and I sprinted across the finish line, but I think I could have pushed myself to stay under that 9:30 mark that I so dreaded seeing pop up on my watch. So that is my new goal, perhaps the one that I have been looking for, is to really start to push myself and get out of my own head to allow my body to do what I know it can do. I have put over a thousand miles on my feet and birthed a child in the past two years, so I know I can do more, I just have to find that push inside of me and do it, and I will. It is funny that I started out hating running, then I ran a half but never wanted to do a full, then I did a full but never wanted to be fast, and now I want to be fast. Runners really are a different sort of crazy.

It wasn't all that bad on race day either, it was a beautiful sunny day, there were gorgeous views of Hyannis Port, lots of locals came out to cheer and Maddie, Matty and Jane were all cheering for me as I crossed the finish line to get my super awesome medal. It was also the first long race that I have done alone, and I enjoyed running my own race and trusting in my training to keep me going instead of begging Matty to tell me I was not actually going to die on the side of the road. I was glad that I took it easy on alcohol and sugars in the week leading up and did a lot of yoga stretches the morning of the race as much as I was glad that I added a little 'Sweet Home Alabama' and NWA to my playlist the night before. I had been a spectator of this race twice and it really did feel good to be on the other side of the cones and start planning for part two of the Cape Cod trilogy.

The race also gave me the final push to stop being a martyr and get NEW SHOES! That's right, last night we popped into Marathon Sports and I walked out with the new version of my beloved Brooks, with whom I have spent two years, three half marathons, one full marathon and countless long runs with. They saw me through those first early morning runs, sixty pounds heavier with a bitter hatred for running and a leaky postpartum body to my first half marathon a year ago Sunday (the same day I was running Hyannis!). They carried me through that first 26.2 and got me on the treadmill during this terrible winter to work on my pace and keep my training plan on track. I think I am going to bronze them, smelly soles and all.

Here's to pretty new shoes, happier feet, and a speedier Stefanie!