Fourth Time is the Charm

Last Saturday, I ran the ING Hartford Half Marathon and I finally had the race I have been hoping to have since I started training hard two years ago.  Although the training this year was brutal (humid, humid, humid) the conditions on race day were perfect for me, as it was a frigid 29 degrees at the start and barely 40 when we finished two hours later.  I went out hard from the get-go and was able to keep under a 9 minute mile pace the entire 13.1 miles - it was crazy.  I ended up finishing at 1:55:04, which is more than 5 1/2 minutes faster than my previous best, from February of this year!  I was the 1,945 finisher overall, out of 5,946 half marathoners (top 1/3 of all finishers); I was the 688 female finisher, out of 3,320 (top 20% of all females); and I was 125 out of 549 females ages 35-39 (top 22%).  This was definitely my best finish, not only because of my time, but placing among all racers, and I am really thrilled.  Thanks, as always, to my friend Sarah who slogged it out with me all summer during those humid runs.  She ran on Saturday as well, one week shy of being 5 months pregnant, and rocked it!  She has more faith in me than I do in myself and kept telling me that she thought that this was THE race for me, and she was right.  Now, on to the next race!!
Here I am, crossing the finish line (I am on the far left of the screen, black shirt, and I run right in front of the camera).

Hartford does have some pretty sweet medals.