A little bit about the Girlfriends Half Marathon: "When girlfriends get together they can accomplish anything! There’s nothing better, more beautiful than a bunch of strong, powerful, passionate women on a mission! And that’s why collectively, as a group of determined gals, we can make a difference in the fight against breast cancer. Plus when you cross the finish line, you can’t imagine how that positively impacts YOUR entire life."

Girlfriends Half Marathon benefits the Susan G. Komen Foundation in the fight against breast cancer. It's a women-only race, and was capped at 2300 runners and walkers this year. In addition to your race shirt (well, this year it was a vest), you get a reusable bag with goodies inside, a piece of jewelery given to you by a handsome fireman (instead of a medal), fudge, massages, sweaty up-dos, cookies and tea. Sound like a good time? It is!

But mentally, I was in a bad place the night before the race. I was really down on myself. I thought to myself, "Why am I even running tomorrow? I won't PR."

I PR'ed at every race this year. And this would be my second attempt at a sub 2 hour half marathon this year, and it would likely be my second failure. I hadn't trained enough or hard enough to PR.And my body just wasn't feeling great--I was tired, I fighting off all the germs at school, and I hadn't been eating nutritiously.

But I HAD to run Girlfriends. I couldn't just decide I wasn't going to run the race because I wouldn't PR. Not PR-ing wouldn't take away from my successes this year. And this was a great race, full of great women, for a great cause. I decided to "woman up" and "grow some ovaries," and just go and have a good run. My good friend and I would pace off of each other, and just see where things would take us. We decided a reasonable goal would be 2:10.

My friend and I started off at a 9:30 pace, thinking we'd run negative splits and pick it up during the second half. We did pretty well maintaining that through mile 11. Then it got a little rough. Two gradual uphills took a lot out of me.

So, a PR didn't happen. I finished in 2:06, two minutes shy of my PR, and six minutes shy of my sub 2 goal. But it was still a good experience. And it was the first half-marathon for two of my friends--they did great, and had fun!

So maybe in the spring, I'll finish in under two hours... Or maybe I'll sign up for another half before the end of the year...

Did anyone else have a race this weekend? Have any of you gotten discouraged by the prospect of not getting a PR?