So, no suspense here….I broke the 2- hour half marathon!

But read on for an actual surprise (for me, lol).

Since May, I have had this goal for this race after the Grand Island Half where my time was 2:01:10. I’ve been training all summer (you can read about what I used for the training here), and since it has been an extremely hot one wherever I trained I was pretty well prepared for the heat of this race.

I think it was around 72°F when we started, not a cloud in the sky.

The Mighty Niagara Half is really fun, music bands along the way with the first “concert” starting at 7:30 AM.

It was cooler in the shade, and I got a jog in before we started to shake out the legs a bit and get them ready to rock. I don’t know about you, but my first mile is usually garbage and I feel like there is no way the legs are going to take me far. So I like to get that out of the way before we start to run.

This race starts out really fast because there is a downhill right from the gun. Once we leveled out, I had to make myself slow down so I was going slower than the pace I needed to break the two.

You can jump here to find out the strategy I use, and link to the site (runnersconnect.net) where it comes from. The premise is to bank your ENERGY for later in the race NOT time…like so many of us are tempted to do. The strategy outlined here worked for me both at the marathon and at this race.

Luckily there was a lot of shade from the beautiful trees lining the streets in the first half of the race. The heat was really getting to a lot of people, and the race director had extra water stations throughout…10 water stations for a half is pretty impressive.

Just like in the Buffalo Marathon, some homeowner’s along the route had sprinklers that we could run through. Felt amazing!

There are some fantastic views of Lake Ontario on this run, and the route takes us through some beautiful parks. Fort Niagara State Park was especially enjoyable. The views of the lake were stunning.

This race supports Niagara Hospice, so it was especially gratifying to be able to reach my goal and help with theirs.

I am usually a negative splitter, so as the miles went by I was feeling strong and gaining confidence that I could reach my goal. I am terrible at math, though, so I wasn’t completely sure. Even though I knew the goal paces per mile from the strategy I was using, I still felt like I had to push more to get it done.

I had passed the 2: 00-hour pacer around mile 6, so I figured that if he was pacing right I was ok if I could stay ahead of him.

At the end of the race, there was a ton of energy from the people on the sidelines right near the finish. It is so encouraging to hear them cheering and seeing that finish line. I got into it and waved to the crowd, lol…which isn’t like me but I was having a good time.

And I could see I reached my goal!

It was stinkin hot by this time, and there were volunteers handing out electrolyte drinks and water bottles. Ice packs were available and best of all was a waterfall sprinkler. That felt soooo good!

I had checked a bag, which I am so glad I did. Getting out of sweaty clothes and having a change of shoes made staying for the after party much more comfortable.

And what an after party it was!! Hands down, the most fun I have ever had at one.

If you are living in the Buffalo area, you have got to get to an event that has Nerds Gone Wild. They are SO MUCH FUN!!! They had a bunch of us dancing and singing (after all of us were done running a very hot half marathon mind you). I am really hoping they are back next year. Dave and I stayed for the whole thing.

Ok, so here is the crazy part. During the run I was thinking to myself that if I could break the 2-hour mark, MAYBE I could place in the top 3 for my age group.

Believe me when I say I was STUNNED when they announced my name in 1st place for females 50-54. I could hardly process it.

I turned to Dave and said “what should I do?”

He laughed (and then he cried, sweet man) and told me to go get my age group winners pin.

It was a surreal moment, walking up to get that pin. Never would I have imagined when I started running that I would ever win anything because of it.

Running has become such a huge part of my life, a part that I love. The benefits are, of course, amazing for staying physically fit (and fits in nicely with my hobby, which is eating).

BUT…I am amazed at how much I run just because I love to run. I look forward to my runs, both the ones with my husband and when I run alone. The improvement in my running didn’t start to come until it was something that I just loved doing and wanted to do more of.

Besides highly recommending this half marathon, let me just say I highly recommend running. Any distance, any speed, any time.

Just run.