AMAZING HALF MARATHON

So last night I drove up with my friend, Alison, her little sister, Madeline, and my 2 roommates. We stayed the night in Alton Bay, New Hampshire and then woke up bright and early to run the Big Lake 1/2-marathon. I have been Alison's training partner for most of the half-marathon prep, and we decided to stick together again today. Good thing we did, she needed me for the first 11 miles, and I needed her for the last 2. We started out great, running 9 minute miles, and a couple of friends who we passed said, you better slow down. We didn't, we felt great. So we kept going at 9 minute miles, sometimes closer to 8 minute miles, and did really well. About mile 6.5, they had Gu and I wasn't ready for mine, but I put it in my pocket. I was ready for it at mile 8, but need water to get it down, and they didn't have water til mile 10. Ugh! It was pretty humid with all the rain we have been getting in New England, I had sweat a lot, so I was needing fluids long before that. At mile 10, we were still doing well, and the hills we had just ran were not nearly as bad as everyone had told us they would be. At mile 11 though, I hit my wall and proceeded to finish the last 2 longest miles of my life; I think I was a bit on the dehydrated side. Alison kinda panicked cause I was breathing hard, superfocused, and not chatty and energetic like I normally am. She was worried, so at that point it turned her role to encourage me and stay only a few feet ahead. I told her to go on, 'cause at mile 12 I felt like I was dragging...she refused to go on and said, you have gotten me this far, I am not leaving you. As we neared the finish, I found some extra energy and we kicked it in through the finish, crossing the finish together with a time of 1:56.20!!! We had thought a goal of under 2 hours might be a stretch. Needless to say, we totally achieved our goal, and despite 2 difficult miles to the finish, we really didn't slow our pace much at all...my body was just struggling. We hadn't even trained at a sub 9-minute mile pace, but we totally ran it today! It was awesome, and felt so amazing to do it!!! I loved it, and will definitely being doing more half marathons, and then someday down the road, I will try to train for another full marathon (hoping to not deal with broken foot issues ever again). I am a little sore, but feeling great. Pictures will follow soon, I have to get them from Madeline's camera, she was our cheerleader/photographer, etc.