I did another half marathon thing today and did not die.

Remember how I said I wasn't going to race so much during this marathon training cycle?  Yeah.  Well.  I did another half marathon thing today.

Wait...are these people running a race?  I will too.

I wasn't going to run this race--The Lincoln Presidential Half Marathon in Springfield, IL--I SWEARS.  I had looked at this race as my tune-up half marathon (having run it before and knew it was a quality event), but it was a little too late in game for it to be used as a tune-up.  And then my friend texted me and basically browbeat me into doing it with this text:

"Are you doing the half in Springfield?  The medal is kind of cool this year."

And of course I took one look at the medal and was all I'M IN WHERE DO I RELINQUISH MY MONEY

And with the pennies in the medal I got $$ back!

But the medal isn't the only cool thing about this race; it starts at the Old State Capitol, takes you past all of the major Lincoln historical sites, past the new State Capitol, and through Oak Ridge Cemetery where he's buried and waiting for us to run by every year I just know it.

Running in a cemetery? Not creepy at all.

Because this race was a last-minute addition to the training plan, it meant that I had to work it into a 20 mile training run on the schedule.  As I learned during my last half-marathon, doing the extra miles I needed to do before the race began was the key to actually getting them done.  So I got my butt up early this morning and headed to the hotel treadmill deep in the bowels of the hotel at 5:30 AM.

Why isn't anyone else running before a race?

A few things about the 6 miles I did there this morning: a) only two of those treadmills actually worked, and b) what respectable hotel locks the bathrooms near the fitness center when it's open 24/7?!?!  Regardless of those two inconveniences, I managed to get 6 miles done before I had head back to the room to use the freaking bathroom and then get ready to go run the half.

The race itself is a pretty hilly one, with none of the hills being very long...but what hills there are can be pretty stinking steep.  Thankfully the hills around my house have brutalized me to such a degree that I am no longer afraid of hills--I just put my head down and get up those suckers.  That's something I realized I was doing in mile 11 of the race, after we went up and down a few rollers on the back side of Oak Ridge Cemetery: it just hit me that I was taking the hills without any pitiful mental whining whatsoever.  Now, since mental whining is my jam, that was a huge revelation regarding how far I'd come in my training progress.  This race made me realize a few other things about how I've improved as well:

• My legs were only a little itty bit tired when I started the half, and it only took about a mile into the race for them to feel normal again. This is kind of crazy to me, seeing as I stopped doing any lower body strength training other than spin biking for this entire training cycle.  Seems like my legs got stronger without strength training.
• My old left butt injury didn't even bother me.  Not once.  It hasn't really reared its ugly head at all during this training cycle...maybe that break from running right before I started did more good than I realized it did.
• I realized my legs felt fine during the last mile of the half, which was really my mile 19 (I ran a mile cool-down after the race to make 20).  I've never felt that amazing in mile 19 of any marathon; in fact, usually I'm having a mental breakdown at that point and debating whether or not I should just sit down in the middle of the course and start sobbing.  I also was busting out an 8:30-ish pace in that last mile, and it felt just fine.

• I started the race behind the 2:30 pacers but ended up finishing in 2:02:40.  I am only sort of ashamed to admit that this meant as I was waiting for my friend to finish the race I was watching people come down the chute like MUHAHAH I PASSED ALL OF YOU.  Sorry, people I passed; you still did an amazing job finishing 13.1 miles.
• I ran 20 miles today and I wasn't completely destroyed afterwards.  In the past I would have been hobbling around right after the race, but I was walking around with only a minimal amount of shuffling and wincing. Legs are stronger, that's for sure.
• It was super duper nice not to run in winter gear.  It was a beautiful day to run 13.1 miles outside, people, and I'm sure that helped me run strong and fast because I wasn't worrying about losing fingers and toes to the cold.

Because of all of these cool things I noticed, I've got a little more confidence in hitting my marathon goal...inching more and more toward that "I got this" mindset.  It's amazing what not skipping any workouts and eating right will do for you.  You know what else is amazing?  Some end-of-post learnings, that's what:

• Racing protip: Don't fill your handheld water bottle with sparkling water the night before the race, reasoning it will go flat by the morning so it will be just like regular water and you don't have to fill the bottle with hotel tap water.  Just don't.
• When you're about to run up a short but steep hill and a spectator tells you it's just a little hill, you are allowed to glare at them.  Hard.
• Sunshine helps you run faster.  Believe me.
• The best reason to run a race you never planned on running is because it has a kick-ass medal.

Upcoming workouts: Crazy speed and crazy tempo workouts this week.  Mile repeats are good for the soul....maybe.