Ocean City Half Marathon

I'm running the Ocean City Half Marathon this Sunday, October 2nd. There are a lot of things to be said about this race.

The best is that I'm looking forward to running with my friend Kristie and with my new friend Jamie. Kristie is a better athlete than I am. She will pooh pooh that but it's true. She takes her health and her fitness seriously. I admire that. Jamie will be running her second half marathon ever and, as I read her blog and FB posts, I can see that she has taken her first experience (which was much more respectable than she gives herself credit for) and applied it diligently to her training for this one. I admire that too. I'm excited to be able to start the race with both of them.

After the Rock N Roll Philly on the 18th I was on vacation and didn't even try to get any runs in. I came back from that and chased my nephew for a 5k on Saturday the 24th and had a hard Art Museum plyometric workout yesterday. That's it. It's anybody's guess how I'll do on Sunday. I know I'll have fun. I always do. And I should finish as long as my left hamstring behaves. I tweaked it during the Rock N Roll and it wasn't happy about the nephew chasing either. This is not an excuse. It is reality and the reason why I think it's foolish to make a time goal for this race. I'm really not prepared for this race. I haven't even figured out my strategy. I like run/walk but Jamie doesn't and I'd kind of like to see if I can keep up with her running the whole way. I've run an entire half marathon before but it's been awhile and I was better prepared then. Without a time goal, I think I will try though and if I can't keep up, I'll switch to run/walk and meet them at the finish line. No pressure, just do it.

Some other things to be said about this race:
- I get to run on the boardwalk. This is a big deal for me. My family started going to OCNJ in the summer when I was 9 or 10. I've always seen people running on the boardwalk but I never did it myself. Walked and road my bike but not run. When I started running for sport (2008) I knew I had to run the boardwalk sometime. This will be my chance. The race finishes on the boardwalk.
- I love the Shore but because of Hurricane Lee I did not make it to OC even once this season. It's not summer anymore but it is still 2011 so this will be my only trip. Whew!
- I want my picture taken with Mr. Peanut.