Goal Time: 2 hours 45 minutes Actual Time: 2 hours 34 minutes 38 seconds  |
| It's race day! |
Wow! I honestly believe that this was just the PERFECT race to choose for my first half marathon! It was soooooo much fun!
*CAUTION - Photo heavy!!!*
I woke up at 5:30 to start getting ready for the race. Positive A was gonna pick me up at 6:00.
I laid all my 'stuff' out the night before, b/c I'm super anal and didn't want ot forget anything. I do that for every race. Well, guess what? I forgot something. I forgot my CHIP TIMER. Of all things!!!
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| My race specific items! |
I posed for a few pictures while waiting for Positive A. Hubby was awake and getting ready to wake the boys up to start getting ready.
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| A good luck kiss right before leaving the house! |
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I hopped in the car with Positive A, and we were off! We went to go pick up my BIL next. In the car I ate a peanut butter sandwich on honey wheat bread, a banana and 20 oz. of water with Cytomax in it.
We only live about 30 miles north of Dallas, so we thought we were leaving with plenty of time. We were following the directions that were listed on the race website for how to get to the parking area. Well, we had to get off one highway and onto another...that's where the traffic started! We could see the HORRIBLE traffic coming up, and we knew that it was all due to the race, so we exited before the traffic and found a completely different route to get to the designated parking area. We bypassed ALL of the traffic. It was pretty amazing. Glad I live around here and that we were able to navigate!
It was soooo cold out! The days before the race it was so warn out. 80's pretty much every day. I think I wore shorts on Saturday...I wake up Sunday morning for the race, and it's like 42 degrees out! I was going to wear a really cute skirt, but it was just too darn cold!
Once we got parked, the nerves started kicking in, but I made sure to snap a few pictures on our way to the shuttle to the start line.
We hopped on the shuttle!
Positive A couldn't wait! So, we all decided so go since we were standing there!
We asked some people standing by to snap a quick picture of us before the race started!
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| Danny was still in the middle of eating some GU! |
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Look at this crowd of people! This is just a small bit of how many people were actually there!
Right near the start line, the famous Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were cheering everyone on! It was soooo cold. Those girls must have frozen their rears off!
We were off, and running! I feel like I warmed up pretty quick and was ready to take my jacket off by mile 2. I was pretty worried b/c I hadn't run in almost 3 weeks due to the hip flexor strain that I had. I was nervous that I wasn't gonna be healed enough and that I wouldn't make it through the race. I felt the pain when I first started, but it was gone by the end of the first mile. I usually tire out pretty quickly and need fairly frequent walk breaks, but I was feeling pretty good! We ran the first 4 miles easily, and only stopped twice...for me to take off my jacket really quickly, and then to pose for a picture by some pretty flowers! Danny had already taken off on us slow runners!
The first 6 or so miles were pretty hilly. I was a bit intimidated, but think that I did pretty well considering I HATE hills and try VERY hard not to train on them! I really really enjoyed the first half of the race b/c we got to run through Highland Park, which is a really ritzy area of Dallas! The houses were HUGE and gorgeous! Just a very pretty well taken care of area.
Miguel and Colin (we left Brennan with my MIL b/c we didn't think he would behave for the length of time), my bestie, Casey, and my BIL's GF all parked at the finish line and rode the DART train to Mockingbird Station to see us. That was just over the halfway point (around 7.1 miles or so). I knew that they were going to be here, so I was really looking forward to getting to this point. We stopped and took a couple pictures!
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| I LOVE the sign that my friend Casey made for me! |
I got pretty excited when we saw the 10 mile marker. I decided that for every race, I'm going to take a picture by the marker. I chose that one, b/c I had never run more than 10 miles in one shot!
My legs were starting to hurt at this point. Both hips were achy, but I kept pushing on. The world started end by mile 11! I was really sore. Positive A decided to push on while I ran a bit slower.
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| I look like a 'real' runner here! |
Mile 12 came, and I thought I was going to DIE. At this point, I just wanted the race to be over!
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| Almost there! |
I finally cross the finish line! I'm so excited and glad that it's over!
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| The best feeling in the world! |
The bling!
Me showing off my BLING!
I found Positive A after I finished, but I couldn't find Danny anywhere! I wanted him to be in the picture with us!
Some random fun pictures after the race!
Yay! We found Danny and got a group shot of the first time half-marathoners!
I feel so blessed to have such supportive family and friends. Even though I was injured right up until the race, I praise God for His goodness and for getting me through my first half marathon!
Since I forgot my chip timer, I went by my Garmin time. I forgot to turn it off after I finished, but after some figuring out...I've got my official time as 2 hrs 34 mins 38 secs. I'm SUPER proud of that!! My goal was 2 hrs 45 mins, so I beat my goal by over 10 mins!!
