Jersey Shore Half Marathon

Today all of us ran the Jersey Shore Half Marathon, at the Sandy Hook beach, New Jersey. It was an awesome experience, and a great first race for all of us!
The day was as perfect as could be! Cool not cold.....with the sun nicely shining!!:)
The race started at 9:00 a.m. I finished 311th overall!!:D The course was a relatively flat one, and consisted of running a 7.6 mile loop first, and then a 5.5 mile one.
Coach and I had spoken before the race, and we had set a 2 hour 10 min time for me. In training, I always managed to do 12 miles in 2:10, so we felt that I could do the 13.1 in 2:10. I got my Team Asha T-shirt today - yellow in color - which turned out the best color to have, since we were pretty much noticed by one and all!!!
I started out pretty well, and made my way through the crowd. Coach and the faster guys had set themselves on a 9 min/mile pace and were running ahead! The energy and atmosphere was astounding, with people cheering the runners from anywhere and everywhere! May be it was the atmosphere, or it was just me trying to push myself for a better time, but I was setting a pretty brisk pace!!!
There were water stops at approximately 2-mile intervals. Each stop was managed by a different group, and the runners were told to vote for the best stop at the end of the race! So at each stop, there was plenty of cheers, shouting and encouragement!!
3 miles came in 27 minutes, and I felt pretty warmed up, and decided to keep this pace throughout!! It worked - until the 12 mile, I was pretty much on target with a pace just under 9 min/mile!!
The 12th and 13rd miles became a little tougher. The sun was making things a little difficult, but the crowd kept me going!! When the finish was a few hundred meters away, I decided to go faster. But the timing couldnt have been worse. As I came about 50m to the finish line, I was almost out of steam. Thinking back, I should have started speeding up a little later than I actually did.
During the finishing stages, Coach Tom, and the others who had finished were egging me on...and when I crossed the finish line, I was amazed to see the time - 1:57:16!! That is 38 seconds to 1:57:54, which is exactly 9 min/mile pace!!:) So I can safely say that I did under 9 min/mile!!:D:D:D:D
This was an awesome experience, and I really hope the Philly marathon experience measures up and beyond this!!!
To sign off, here's a photo of me finishing the half-marathon - the time is also visible in the photo!!