• Fitness
  • Food
  • Travel
  • Biz
  • My Life
  • Friday Favorites
  • Home
  • About My Blog
    • 100 Life Goals
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About My Blog
    • 100 Life Goals
  • Contact

Always Emily H.

Menu
  • Fitness
  • Food
  • Travel
  • Biz
  • My Life
  • Friday Favorites
Fitness, Half Marathon

Parker River Half Marathon {Race Recap}

By Emily

Last Sunday I ran the Parker River Half Marathon and spoiler alert: I PRed!!!! This was my second half (read about my first here) and I haven’t run this distance in over 3 years. What was I thinking?

parker river half marathon start

The Parker River half Marathon is a USATF Certified 13.1 course but I apparently didn’t run the tangents right because I clocked the course at 13.49. That’s almost a 1/2 worth of extra running. Ugh!

Parker River Half Marathon {Race Recap}

Parker River Half Marathon Race Recap (@yukanrun) Click To Tweet

I joined my studio’s run club back in May in hopes to get into a better running routine. It worked. I fell back in love with running (especially long runs) after three years of being out of love.

Throughout training for this race, I wasn’t even sure I was going to participate until the week before. I signed up for the race a mere 8 days before race day. Turns out, it was a good decision.

Pre-Race Fuel

The Parker River Half Marathon start, finish and parking was only a 10 minute drive from my house so a SUPER early alarm was not needed. I got up just after 6:00 am and drank some water and ate a Larabar.

Larabars worked for me during training so I knew I would be ok eating one 90 minutes before race time. Along with the water and bar, I had roughly 2-4 oz of cold brew coffee just plain. I didn’t want to overdue it on the caffeine but wanted a little something.

Parker River Half Marathon

parker river half marathon start line

Now onto the race. The gun went off exactly at 8:00 am and I was off running.

Mile 1 – 8:56

Mile 2 – 9:12

Mile 3 – 9:17

I treated the first 3 miles as my warm up. I tried to keep it slow because this was a long race and it was HOT out already. Luckily, there was a good amount of shade for this section.

Mile 4 – 9:21

Mile 5 – 9:46

Mile 6 – 9:57

At mile 6 I ate my first energy chew. I prefer these over energy goo because the consistency of the goo makes me want to gag and die.  I’m a very salty sweat-er and found that the Clif Salted Watermelon chews to work for me.

parker river half marathon running

Mile 7 – 10:18

Mile 8 – 10:25

Mile 9 – 9:48

Where did my mile 9 pace come from? I ate another chew somewhere between mile 9 and 10 and it must have given me a little boost.

Mile 10 – 10:05

Mile 11 – 10:17

Mile 12 – 10:52

During mile 11 I ate my final chew for the race.

parker river half marathon mile 12

Mile 12 through me a little curve ball and for 1/4 – 1/2 mile we went off road. WTF?! Don’t you think they should mentioned that? At that point, I just focused on not tripping over rocks or potholes and just tried to keep moving.

Mile 13 – 11:24

By the time mile 13 came around, I was out of steam. Hence the 11+ min/mile.  This was a very boring, non-shady part of the course and my lower back and calves were throbbing.

Last .48 miles – 10:08

parker river half marathon medal

Haha – all my pains seemed to fade away as I came into the finish.

RunKeeper Stats: 13.49 miles // 2:14:37 // 9:59 min/mile

Official Race Time: 13.1 miles // 2:14:34 // 10:15 min/mile

As you can see, these times an distances are a little off from one another. But either way, its a PR for me! I ran my last half marathon in 2:16:10 and had to walk parts of it. No walking this time and I finished strong!

Finish Line

parker river half marathon finish

These girls all crushed the Parker River Half Marathon and most of all, I am so happy to have met each of them and run with all of them.

I was really proud of my results and the fact that I actually got up early on a Sunday morning and ran for over 2 hours.


Join the #WildWorkoutWednesday linkup with @fitfulfocus @fitfoodiemama and @prettylilgrub Click To Tweet

Linking up with Wild Workout Wednesday…


The Fit Foodie Mama

Related posts:

Twin Lobster Half Marathon {Race Recap} My 2nd Half Marathon Summer Half Marathon Training – Week 7 Summer Half Marathon Training – Week 5
Tags: half marathon race recap
Posted on July 11, 2017 7 Comments
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest
dinner at the fort game plate
Previous ArticleWIAW: Denver Eats + Dinner at The Fort
Next ArticleThinking Out Loud #19

About Author

Emily

I'm Emily and I am a 32 year-old MBA graduate, full time marketer, wifey, blogger, and fitness enthusiast. Welcome to my blog! Always Emily H. chronicles my crazy life focusing on fitness, food and fun!

Twitter

Related Posts

  • Chase the Gorilla Down Argilla 5k

    Chase the Gorilla Down Argilla 5k – Race Recap

    April 17, 2018
    Read More
  • sprint into spring 5k

    Sprint into Spring 5k Race Recap

    April 10, 2018
    Read More
  • Health & Fitness Things I No Longer Do

    April 5, 2018
    Read More

7 Comments

  1. Megan
    July 12, 2017 at 8:59 pm

    Yay for you! Nice that you were so close to the start/finish; that really helps.

    • Emily
      July 13, 2017 at 8:59 am

      It honestly made all of the difference!

  2. Jen @ pretty little grub
    July 13, 2017 at 7:05 am

    A new PR! Way to go. I’ve had a half marathon that suddently became a trail run without warning too, it can be jarring for sure.

    • Emily
      July 13, 2017 at 9:00 am

      Nothing like a mile 12 surprise!

  3. Nicole @ Fitful Focus
    July 13, 2017 at 9:39 am

    CONGRATS ON THE PR!!!!

  4. Annmarie
    July 13, 2017 at 12:55 pm

    Yay, congrats on the new PR! That’s awesome!!!

  5. Pingback: Thinking Out Loud #19 | Always Emily H.
Welcome to Always Emily H.

Connect with Me

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

NASM Personal Trainer

NASM Personal Trainer

I’m Certified

Email Messaging Certification Program Value Proposition Certification Program

Follow me on Bloglovin’

Follow

Insta Life

No images found!
Try some other hashtag or username

Recent Posts

  • What I Ate Wednesday + Day in the Life
  • A Taste of Tuesday
  • Friday Favorites #116
  • Weekend Recap
  • Friday Favorites #115

The Archives

Categories

© Always Emily H.
Back to Top
Wordpress Theme by Tinselpop