13.1 complete baby!

I can't believe its actually over....but Thursday morning we completed our first half marathon....the only downside was getting up at 4am....but I am glad the race was early....and later in the day and it would have been too hot!!!

Shockingly I slept well the night before....and was ready to go at 4 am when the alarm went off....even though it was still dark!....Andrew was not as ready....

Here's us pre-race.....notice Andrew is still smiling!

The race was more mentally hard for me....my pace in the beginning was messed up....which is my own fault...I need to remind myself to take the first mile or so slower to get in my rhythm prior to trying to speed up....otherwise I am just playing catch up most of the way.....but once I got past mile 4.....I decided to break up the rest of the miles into 2-3 mile increments....after 4 I told myself just get to 7.....then when I got to 7 just get to 9.....and then once I got to 9 just get to 11.....and after that it was pretty much downhill from there....the only hard thing was the "mountain" as we have named it the hill right after mile 6....I had looked at the elevation map prior to the event....but I guess I did not look how short the hill was....so that was one steep SOB....and I am not going to lie I could not run, nor jog up it....it would have killed me!!!  I am just thankful that was the only real beast of the route.....

I have to say the crowds cheering you on along the way are awesome....they keep you going.....even though I know they are not specifically there for me....just having them say you're doing awesome....or ringing their cow bells is all you need to get your through some of the mentally hard parts when you just want to pull off and be done.....and the best sign I saw was "Beer Misses You...." and something about how you can have a few afterwards!

My overall goal for this event was to be a sub 10 which I was...and I wanted to come in under 2:15 which I did.....I wished I could have been faster than my 10 mile pace....which I could have possibly have done if I would have warmed up properly....but that's okay.....my official time was 2:09:48....which I am happy with.....

I am proud of my husband....who was not prepared for this race....he completed it and he did a great job with it....13.1 miles is hard...and he suffered through it!

Here's us post race....notice the smile in the beginning is gone 

Next up the TC Marathon for me in the beginning of October....this one I will be running alone...as Andrew said his bucket list is more than likely complete with the half marathon....