What a race! Here are the details of the half, starting with Saturday night, and a video of pictures is below. If you don't want to read it, I had a great time, couldn't have asked for better weather, and am proud to say I ran the whole thing.
-I went to bed around 10:30pm. I had no problem falling asleep, but I woke up about 3:50am to go to the restroom and then I couldn't fall asleep for about another 45 minutes or so. That was frustrating. I kept thinking about the race and how excited I was to run in it.
-We left at 7am and about 6 minutes into our drive to the AAC, I realized I had left my Gu at home. So...we turned around. That was not good b/c I wanted to have enough time before it started to walk around, use the restroom, etc. Josh was good at keeping me calm. We still had plenty of time when we got there, so in the end, it was okay and I was very thankful to have the chocolate Gu.
-The weather was perfect: 50 degrees and cloudy.
-At about 7:50am I lined up in my corral. There were 5 groups, A-E, and depending on how long you thought it would take you to finish the race, that is which corral you were placed in. All half marathoners and marathoners lined up together. I was in group B.
-The guns went off at 8am and there was smoke and confetti that shot up in the air. That might have been one of the most memorable moments for me b/c everyone started cheering and the adrenaline was pumping. It definitely put a smile on my face.
-And I was off. Luckily, after about 50 yards, I saw Josh. I was so happy that I got to see him in the beginning. He makes me smile.
-I felt like my pace was good but that I needed to control it so I didn't get tired too fast. We started off downtown and made our way to Uptown.
-At mile 3, I saw some familiar faces. Stacy Mitchell and Lara Pringle (Aggie Chi O's) were cheering me on and had made a sign for me. That was motivation I tell ya!
-After that I have to say miles 3 and 4 were pretty much a blur.
-Then I got to mile 5 and as I'm running I hear "Jamie!" It was my wonderful husband. I had no idea he was going to try to find me during the race; I just knew I'd see him at the start and finish. He had driven and parked his car near the course that went through Highland Park, walked to the street we were running on, had only been waiting for about 4 minutes, and then he saw me. Good thing I was wearing hot pink.
-At that point (mile 5), I saw the clock was around 47 minutes, so I knew I had a good pace. I also took the time to enjoy my first Gu.
-Then we crossed 75 and headed toward Greenville and the M streets.
-I can't even begin to tell you how many people were lining the streets (throughout the entire race) to cheer on people they knew and didn't know. It was so awesome that so many strangers were there to support you and they definitely helped me push through it.
-I felt like we ran on Matilda for 2 miles. It may have been close to that b/c when we crossed back over 75, we were into mile 9. At this point, we had run on a few hills, but it wasn't that bad.
-Around mile 10, I took my second Gu, and I am not sure if it had anything to do with this, but I got this wave of adrenaline and started running faster. From there on out, the rest of the run was on Katy Trail, which is flat land.
-As we were approaching the finish, there was Josh again, with his smile on and his camera out. You'll see a lovely picture of me in the video.
-I finished strong and entered the Runner's Village. It was so good to be done, and I will never forget it.
My final running time was 2 hours and 1 second, which means I averaged about a 9 minute, 9 second mile. I am thrilled with that time. My goal was to be around a 9:30 mile, so to beat that makes me appreciate all the hard work I put into it for 12 weeks.
