Women's Half Marathon

For the past 12+ weeks I have been training for my first half marathon.  I have been running with a  friend 3-4 days a week with weekends for "long runs". We thought this day would NEVER get here. 5:00 a.m. runs on Saturday mornings are not fun... make that 8-11 mile runs on Saturday mornings and those are even less fun!!!

Last Friday I took off work early and we drove downtown to the Nashville Convention Center to pick up our race day packets. I am very grateful for Mary pushing me each step of the day and I am even more grateful for her friendship. This is her THIRD half marathon!

Mary and I

The race started at 7:00 a.m. We got downtown just before 6:30. Here we were in line for the port-a-potty. :)

In our corral and ready to RUN!

People in front of us

And the ones behind

Carl and Chad, Mary's husband, brought their bikes and they rode a little bit of the coarse and snapped these pics with their phones.

 YIKES!

Let me tell ya, this race was HILLY! The distance wasn't so bad it was those friggin' hills. By the end of the race I had the worst pain between my neck and my right shoulder. The only thing I can think of is that it was from leaning forward while running up those hills?!?!

We found out after the race that the boys stopped off by Krispy Kreme after they left us. :o

 We crossed the finish line with a time of 2:30.55. Our goal was 2:30 so we did it! I thought we may actually smash that goal but around mile 11 I started cramping and had to run/walk the remaining 2 miles.

Just after we crossed the finish line. My whole entire body was HURTING!

So happy it's over!!!

Resting those tired legs!

Last picture before heading out for food!

We got home around 12:30 and I crashed. It was after 4:00 before I crawled out of bed. I am so happy that I did it and as physically exhausting as it was I have to say I am looking forward to my second.....one with less hills!