The first run after the race

Now that the race is over, I'm back to my regular routine of training for the next one. I went out for a short run on Sunday. Mostly to get the body moving again. I went to Yoga and spin earlier in the week but that was no-impact so I needed to see how I would feel after pounding again.
The initial movement wasn't so good. Had some heel pain and a few twitches here and there. As I kept moving everything worked itself out. The run wasn't anything spectacular but my runs hardly ever are.
The next race is a true Half Marathon towards the end of Jan. It's considered a very fast race since it's mostly downhill. Notice I said "mostly". The uphill parts are actually pretty scary from what I saw on the website for last year. We will see. So who's running with me? That will be the big question.

The race

The San Antonio Half Marathon was Sunday. For starters I must say that overall it was a great race. The weather was cold to start. About 37 degrees (I know you people up North don't consider that cold but remember where I live). So it was perfect race weather. The problem was is race had 33,000 participants. Yes you heard me right 33,000. They started in waves and since I'm slow I started way in the back. Not at the end but pretty far back there. I hit the starting mat 50 minutes after the start. That means the winner of the marathon was half way by time I started and the Half winner was almost done.
In hindsight sight I started out a little fast even though it seemed I was going slow. I didn't feel my feet for the first couple of miles. I tried to keep a consistent pace but it wavered a bit. It was all going good for first 10K. After that my feet started to hurt and we encountered so inclines. It was bad more rolling I guess. But to my up is up. Or so I thought but I'll get to that in a moment.
I suffered with my feet for another 5K and lost some ground because of it. I finally tightened my shoes after 15K and that helped a lot. I found running easier and that made it fun again. That lasted until mile 11, when I was told that I needed to step it up if we were going to meet the time goal.I tried but with only 2 miles to go and you are tired stepping it up isn't the simplest thing to do.
I tired and I thought we were going to really be close when at mile 12 we round the corner and go through this short tunnel. In my mind I'm thinking we have got this. Piece of cake we can do it. Then I look up and see the nastiest hill of my life. I was crushed and on top of it you still couldn't see the finish line. So we walked the hill, past the 13 mile marker and turned the corner,
Once we got around the corner there was the finish. I must say this was the strongest finish I have ever had. This was also the strongest race I have had so far.
All in all, I had a great time.