I woke up this morning at 5:45 a.m. and quickly dressed for my half marathon. I knew it would be cold, so I layered on two cool max shirts and my jacket before grabbing a fleece for afterwards since I could hear the rain outside.
I rushed out to my car and headed on down the road. There was SNOW on my windshield which made me seriously wonder if this race was a good idea. Nonetheless, I was in the car which made me committed and I continued on my way. I made a bad directional decision and headed down I-5 and exited off the Mercer Street exit where I sat for over 40 minutes before illegally parking and running to the race start. I bustled about for a few moments and then the race started. We were off!
I kept one eye out for my training partner. We had trained together for so long that not to actually run the race with her would be just wrong. Along about mile two, I started a conversation with another runner and we began running together. She was the perfect pacer for me. We ran and chatted but I still kept an eye out for my buddy. At mile four, we found each other to great joy! I knew we would meet up! Now there were three of us running along. It was crazy cold and the rain/slush wouldn't stop but it didn't matter all that much.
We jogged along through the puddles and the mud. At the top of the Madison hill, Zubin, his people and friends were waiting to cheer me on. They even had COW BELLS! I was so excited to see people I knew. Zubin was dressed as a runner wearing a garbage bag. I so wish I had a photo of that!
We then coasted on down to Interlaken Park and back through Capital Hill. Around Mile 11, Uli (the marathon winner) passed us with racer on his tail.
My training partner asked, "Are we there yet?" I told her it was just a few more miles and we'd be home free!
Around mile 12 people began lying to us and telling us we had less than half a mile to go. They were wrong! We had 3/4 of a mile to go! Seriously that is huge when you are pooped!
We glided into the finish around 3:30 which is about 30 minutes slower than I've ever ran a half marathon but then again I had the most fun ever and I've never run when it was practically snowing before! Also as an added bonus, my car was not towed nor did it have a ticket on its illegally parked butt!
After the running bit, I headed home and was taken to brunch for some tasty treats. Shortly after we arrived home, true snow began! Fingers Crossed! I want a SNOW DAY!
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