My first half marathon story!

Me, afterwards.

It was a great race! :) Overall very friendly cheerleaders and volunteers, police officers cheering us on, funny signs and lots of nice scenery. The trees were gorgeous and the race course was lovely.

I met my friend A at the library steps at 7:20 to get down to the starting line. We were standing in our corral wondering how on earth we would ever find our friend K when we turned around and there she was! Yay! The three of us ran together for the whole race and I couldn't be happier that we ran together. We were a great team. :)

The first few miles were chilly but when the sun hit us it was nice and warm. I "donated" a shirt, hat, and gloves to the street (the race was picking up all the discarded clothing and donating it to a homeless shelter). The first hill was a doozie, but we did it just fine. People were already looking exhausted at mile 2 but we just passed 'em on by.

The middle of the race was fine - we went through a nice park. There weren't any cheerleaders through the park, which made it more just like a regular jog (with a lot of people), and that was pretty cool. I imagine if I had been running by myself it would have been a nice respite and time to think and reflect on LIFE and training that got me there. Lucky for my therapist, I had 2 lovely ladies to chat with the whole time and we took full advantage of this time by gossiping about co-workers, lamenting our public education system, and chatting about relationships. It was awesome.

When we got to mile 10 we were super excited because we knew we only had a 5K left. We told each other that we had done a 5K before and it was no big deal. :) The last 3.1 were great - lots of support on the roads, and we just booked it in with no problems. (Well, one minor problem....I thought my toe was falling off....) (It didn't fall off). There were beer stations along the way, some junk food stations, a station that was giving away shots of some liquor, and some great signs near the finish. My favorites were "Worst Parade Ever" and "You will feel so great after you get drunk on one beer tonight!"

The finish was a steep downhill and I felt like my legs were going on their own! We crossed the finish line with our hands held high! Here is my official time, which I am excited about - I wanted to beat 2:30! Yay, us! We should be getting a few pictures from friends soon and I will post them. :)

15176 JANE WALDROP 32 F  2:25:07