Half Marathon # 2 Recap

After putting some solid mileage in the past few weeks, was feeling pretty confident going into the Half Marathon this past Sunday.  It was a perfect ideal fall day for my second half-marathon.  Had high goals and expectations going into the race, my main goal was breaking 80, second goal was to finish top 5 and my lastly if all possible win the event.  Went for my normal warm up and feeling good of myself and thinking that the goals are in sight and this is what you have been training for.  After finishing the warm up and doing drill and strides, got up front of the start line and ready to go.  Horn went off and was ready to get after it.  Start off pretty good and had one individual in front of me the first few miles.  When I got past the 2nd mile I felt going a little slow pace the person who i was racing with and so I decided to take off.  If I was ever going to get a big PR, I had to make a move and I did.  Throughout the whole race, I was leading the whole way.  Had nobody with me, basically was just me & the biker.  I kept pushing myself, feeling the pain but was feeling really good. When getting to 7th or 8th mile, was a long hill and kept thinking to push it and get over the hill.  At the 9th mile is where I start to grind and keeping the pace.  Was hitting low 6:00 minute pace and was starting to feel stomach pain around 12th mile and I knew I'm not slowing down and had to stay tough.  Kept pushing mentally and physically.  When I saw the finish line and their was nobody behind, looking at the clock seeing 78 and go wow I am going to PR today and I'm going to win.  Once I crossed the finish line I was tired and feeling the pain but it was worth the race. I was so proud of my accomplishment and it was hard to believe that I won.  I knew I wanted to be in the thick of things but a win was an icing on the cake.  Had so much encouragement during the race from those that were racing the marathon, a lot of spectators and also my mother.  It helped me tremendously and appreciated the support.  Got my goals accomplished and now is on to taking some time off and after that getting ready to start training for my first Full-Marathon next year, spring 2016.  Goal is to qualify for Boston Marathon 2017.