This milestone half marathon sort of sneaked up on me. I guess this is what happens when you haven’t been running that much. So when I did the math and counted all the half marathons I started to panic. I have been slowly building my mileage and conditioning

My medal and bib earned a trip to the beach. (c) Stacey Cooper

back up, in other words, I was not anywhere near to being conditioned for a half marathon.

The one thing that I was holding on to was the fact that two of my buddies would be with me and would provide the perfect distraction for me. Yeah, then a blizzard came to NYC as it usually does when I go to Miami. This time, my friends’ flights were canceled. Let the panic ensue!

I was in major panic mode and maybe had a nothing short of at least five anxiety attacks. How far would I be able to get? Would I make the cut-off time for the half? What would happen if I couldn’t finish? What if I got injured again?

There were several times during the night that I thought about skipping the whole thing and not even giving it a go. But for some reason I still got dressed in the morning, still took the shuttle bus to the start, and the nearly froze to death waiting for the start.

The temps were in the mid-40s, perfect running weather but with the incredibly strong winds it felt like it was in the 30s. Even with my long sleeve shirt and jacket I was still shivering and still thought about how I could get back to South Beach.

I started and thought that I could always drop out when the race went through South Beach and by the street where my room was, not once, but twice. It was then that I ran out of gas running and I knew that the only way I would be able to finish was if I walked the rest of the way. Yup, I walked about the entire second half.

I still didn’t know if I would make the cut-off and I wasn’t exactly happy with the fact that I was walking. But, I realized that I was doing the smarter thing (the smart would have been not to start since I was not conditioned) and not pushing myself to run and re-injure my foot.

So I finished and it took me about an hour longer that my slowest half that I ran all the way through. Surprisingly, I’m ok with that.

I completed my 25th half marathon.