I ran my 12th half marathon on Sunday — the Maryland Half Marathon. I had heard this was going to be a hilly race, but it certainly exceeded my expectations! I didn’t look at the elevation chart ahead of time, I figured I’d just take the hills as they came.

It was a bit drizzly that morning, and really started to pour when I arrived. Great … Eventually I decided I needed to get out of the car and find the bathrooms. I looked at the line to the port-o-pots and am glad I passed them by — there were real bathrooms at the stadium area under the bleachers (and out of the rain!). I stood in line for just a minute when a volunteer told us there was another bathroom on the other end, with a shorter line. Score! It was also close to the start line.

By the time I was finished there, it was about time to line up. And the rain had stopped! There were some announcements, the national anthem (did anybody watch The Sing-Off? Baltimore group Maxx Factor sang the national anthem!) and then we were off!

Even though I knew it was going to be tough, I set out kind of fast. Going into this race, my half PR was 2:07:43, a 9:44 pace. Based on some good 10-milers lately, I decided 9:30 was a good place to start.

1. 9:28
2. 9:31
3. 9:16

And then we made a turn, and started climbing a pretty good-sized hill!

4. 10:21

But I was able to recover quickly!

5. 8:58
6. 9:01

Somewhere around the halfway point, I caught up to a few women who had run this race before. They joked that this part of the course was the calm before the storm. Uh-oh!

7. 9:23

And then I saw what they were talking about. We started climbing. And climbing. I nearly stopped to walk but kept plugging along. One time I looked down, my Garmin said I had a 12:25 pace going. So I was quite surprised when I hit the next mile and it wasn’t so bad…

8. 10:22
9. 9:42

Mile nine was still going up, but not nearly as steep.  And then the downhills began. Wheeee!

10. 9:16
11. 8:34

Mile 11 was my fastest mile of the day. That’s about my 5K pace, but it felt pretty easy —  it was also the steepest decline of the day!The last two miles were mostly flat, through not-to-exciting industrial parks as we made our way back to the fairgrounds. I was definitely getting tired, but knew I had a really good time and kept moving!

12. 9:10
13. 9:15

And then we turned onto the track. The SAND track. The WET sand track. That was unexpected! At least it was only for the last .1!

.1 43 seconds (7:46/mi pace — well, for the .09 Garmin recorded. Close enough!)

The clock was at 2:03:47 as I crossed the mat. I stopped my watch and saw this:

Woo-hoo! I did stick around until they posted the actual chip times. I needed to know if I really did sneak in under 2:03!

Garmin: 2:02:57 — 13.09 miles — 9:24 average
Chip : 2:02:55 — 13.1 miles — 9:23 average
32/110 age group — 455/1153 overall

That’s a  new PR by 4:48! I’m thrilled — I definitely wasn’t expecting to run so fast. Especially on such a challenging course!