my first half marathon

I don't have pictures to upload...yet. But I wanted to do a quick post on my first thoughts of my first half marathon! Yippee! I did it! :)

It was so fun. I know I've been saying that after pretty much every race, but seriously. It was fun. Click here to read a quick recap of the event written by one of my friends from high school.

So appropriately, my first half marathon held a lot of other firsts. This is the first race I've run that started before the sun rose. Yeah. Starting a race in the dark was verrry interesting.

This is also the first race where I've had a running buddy. His name is Ron and he's 62 years old. On top of that, he's had numerous surgeries and a hip replacement! Wow! Amazingly he comes up to me and says that I'm an inspiration and that he's been trying to keep pace with me. After getting to know him, I said "you're definitely the inspiration, not me!" It was GREAT having a running buddy. The miles really flew by after Ron joined me. We didn't finish the race together, but he was right behind me. I really really really wish I had a running buddy for the next half and then Disney next January.

And this race is the first one that any of my family could attend. I had a little tear in my eye after running past them at the start, screaming my name and waving hands in the air. Awww!!! It means so much to me having family there! And then later, coming down the finish line, I kept wondering, where are they?! And there they were, a foot away from the line, cheering me on! Such a great feeling!

And...I got my first medal. I didn't even know you got a medal for finishing. But I've got one! You'll see pictures :)

And my goal was to finish in 2:30 or less...I'm not sure my exact time but it was around 2:19. Yaaaaaay!!