I finished my first Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon today!

First photo is me with with my daughter-in-law and grandchildren after the race.

I have been promising myself that I would write about my running since January 2012. The San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon was a goal race on my tour of races for 2012. I want to finish 5 Half Marathons, and this was #4. Not bad for June! My daughter-in-law and I like to run the half marathons together. She finishes before me, but we walk to the start line together, talk before the race starts, give each other a hug and off she goes. I always tell her to have a good race and look forward to seeing her at the finish line. We ran our first half marathon together - the 2011 Disneyland Half Marathon.

It took almost an hour for my wave to start and my daughter-in-law waited with me, even though she qualified for an earlier start time. There were over 40,000 runners. As I ran/walked the first 3 miles, I felt really good and tried not to run too fast. Miles 4 - 6 were challenging with some steep hills, mile 5 was a long line at the bathroom, but what can you do? There were a few other steep spots in the race, too. Miles 10 - 12 are always hard for me. I am tired, and at mile 10 there are 3.1 miles to go, which does not feel like fun. I usually walk a little more during this leg of the race to baby myself. There were so many great musical bands on the course, it was really motivating. Also, plenty of water & Gatorade stations.

As I finished mile 12, I was at the top of an incline and I could see the finish area. The road descended to a flat finish lane, but the road curved around, so it seemed like the finish line kept moving farther away. I was exhausted at the finish and had a little dehydration to deal with for a few minutes. I drank a bottle of water, ate a banana, and had a bottle of Gatorade. I started to feel better and cool down.

The Rock 'n' Roll experience is incredible.

I would like to repeat this race in 2013.

The medal is awesome!! The feeling of finishing this race is priceless!