The Half.

I had thought I wouldn't be nervous for the half marathon. After all, it was only thirteen miles. Ha.

Maybe I was just excited. Maybe I was nervous about how my leg had felt especially off all week. Maybe it was because I was crashing at my parents' house for the night so that my mom could drop me off in the morning and I wouldn't have to worry about parking. Either way, I didn't get much sleep on Saturday night, the night before the Long Island Half Marathon.

I had all my stuff ready- had done a short 2 mile test run on Saturday afternoon with all my race gear. This included my team in training singlet and the belt pocket I had purchased at the race expo on Friday night. Stored in said belt pocket were three shot blocks and two GUs, which are nutritional supplements that runners take during long runs. I had my shoe tag on my sneakers, my number pinned to my shirt, body glide set out to put on my feet to prevent blisters. Sunscreen and a bag with a change of clothes for after the race. So everything was ready, but I still couldn't sleep.

I had set my alarm for 5:15 am, but at 5:07 I woke up and almost instantly was out of bed. I had my pre-long run meal of oatmeal with peanut butter and raisins, light on any fluids because I had already hydrated heavily the day before and didn't want to have to stop to use the bathroom during the race.

My mom dropped me off in Eisenhower Park at about 6:45 am, and I found the Team in Training booth- a big mass of purple singlets. The coaches gave a pep talk and then the whole group of us started walking down to the start line.

We hung around there for awhile, waiting for the race to begin. It did at 8 AM, but there were so many people (thousands!!) that it took a full 3 minutes for us to pass the start line.

My ankle started popping right away, and my knee felt off, which was really annoying. Still, I was determined. I was running a different pace than anyone else in my group, so I was running alone early on. I tried to listen to the iPod on my iPhone, but I'm not used to working it yet, and it kept shuffling. So then I tried listening to Last.fm & Pandora and that was slowing me down and luckily I finally got the iPod to work. (Looking back, that probably slowed me down and caused me valuble seconds or even minutes to my finish time!!)

Even though it was so early, it was already hot out, and for the first few miles of the race I was running behind this guy in full army gear and I wasn't sure how he wasn't passing out. I passed him, though, and basically I just kept running, pacing my miles. There were large clocks at each mile as well as water stations. I would grab a cup from a volunteer, chug it, fling it to the side of the road. You had to be careful of all the empty cups in the road. Repeat 13 times. Ha. It was a semi-interesting route because it was mostly roads I drive down often, like Old Country Rd and Jericho Turnpike and Post Ave and even a bit of Wantagh Parkway. I had never run on a parkway before. While I was on there, around mile 9, we all had to move to the side of the road to make room for an ambulance rushing to some lady who had passed out.

I just kept going and going and it was hotter than expected but my leg was bothering me more than the heat. At mile 12 I started to get really excited about seeing my family and Justin at the finish line. Then, and at a couple other points during the race, I almost felt like I was going to cry, because I just couldn't believe I was doing this, and doing it pretty well!

Near the finish line I saw Mom, Dad, Andrew, etc- it all happened really fast- and then I picked up my pace and finished strong at 2:23:25. That was the first time I ran that long without stopping to stretch. I heard them announce my name over a speaker- saying DIANE Caporaso- and I wanted to kill them. Haha. I was handed my half marathon medal and a reusable lunch bag of free food. I hadn't seen Justin before the finish line, but he was the first one I found after crossing. I ran up to him and hugged him, even though I was all sweaty and gross. We found the rest of my family members who had been able to come see me for the finish- and it felt so awesome because they all seemed so proud of me, as well as a bit in awe that I was capable of running for that long. It was such an intense, amazing experience. And it's a bit weird to think that it's an experience I might not have had if my life hadn't been thrown into that blender after New Year's.

Afterwards we all went out to brunch and I changed out of my sweaty running clothes into a nice purple dress but I kept my medal on. In the bathroom of the diner I randomly ran into my favorite teacher from high school, and she had just run the half marathon too. Life can be so incredibly random sometimes.

And I also can't help but feel really scared for the full marathon, which is only a month away now. When did that happen??? Am I ready? I don't know if I can last 26 miles with a popping ankle. I saw the podiatrist last week and tomorrow I'm seeing an orthopedist. I really hope I can get the leg situation sorted out soon.

Also, I just turned 26 two days ago. Seems like a fitting year to be running a marathon.