I achieved something this weekend! For the last two years, my goal has been to break 2 hours in a half marathon. My fastest time before now was 2:02:44 so I was getting close! Today, I ran the Brookings half marathon and my official chip time was 1:57:53!! I chopped almost 5 whole minutes off my best time! To say I was excited is an understatement! 

I worked really hard for this race. I knew breaking two hours was doable for me, so over the last few months, I’ve worked hard at my training. I got the long runs in, did as many hills as I could, and was better about getting some speed work outs in. 

I’ve felt really good and was so ready to see what I could do today. I’ll be honest, those looming storms made me nervous! I really didn’t want to make it this far and then it gets called off because of lightning, but we got lucky! 

I ran the whole race with my friend, Erika Zink. She’s a freaking beast, and I’m so glad I had her to push me. We both knew we couldn’t take off too fast, so we stayed with the 4 hour marathon pacer until the full marathon and half marathon folks split at mile 11. 

The race actually felt so good for a majority of the time. I felt strong, and even that killer hill at mile 9 didn’t take too much out of me. I started to feel it a bit a little after mile 10. I stayed strong though, because I knew I had less than a 5K left. 

Erika kept saying we had less than 30 minutes left…less than 20 minutes…only a few more minutes of holding the pace. It actually helped my mentality a lot more than saying we had 3 miles left, then 2, and so on. 

That last mile was HARD. I was pushing myself with all I had left and I knew at this point I was going to make my goal. It started sprinkling with half a mile to go which made me smile because I definitely thought we would be drenched the whole time. We got so lucky!! 

Jenn West, Jill Makepeace, Erika’s husband, Ryan, and Dan were waiting for us on the corner before the finish and as soon as they saw us, Jenn started jumping up and down and screaming for us! I heard Dan yell to me to keep pushing it all the way in and I was just so happy. In a lot of pain yes, but happy! 

I was surrounded by great friends and I achieved something I’ve wanted to do for so long! Erika and I got across that finish line and as soon as I stopped running, a wave of nausea hit me pretty hard – a good sign of giving it all I got! I had to lean on Erika until I felt okay enough to keep moving, and luckily didn’t throw up haha. 

Overall, I’m just super stoked about how the race went, and proud of myself for achieving a goal. Hard work really pays off! And I can’t wait to do it again! 

Keep working hard everyone! 

Until next time! 🙂 

Megan Reiffenberger