Birthday PR!!

Wow! I really don't know what to say about today. It was amazing, wonderful, fun, emotional, tough, challenging....I am pretty tired so I will give a small race report tonight and fill you in on the complete report tomorrow.

First things first..... Can you all say sub 2? I thought so!!! I want to thank each and every one of you for all your encouragement and faith in me! I seriously thought of each of you as I ran. with each mile it became more and more real that I could actually get a sub 2 hour half! I think I did math in my head at least a quarter of the time I was running, "If I keep this mile at 8:30 then I can actually run 9 min miles for the last 3 miles and still do sub 2." "8 min times 7 miles is 56 (minutes) plus about 4 more minutes (give or take a few) is one hour so if I run the last 6 miles in...9x6=54....whoa 9 minutes and I would get my sub 2 in this run!" Math. Yuck, I have always hated math. But that is what I did and it helped pass the time, and each mile that was under 9 I knew I was buying time for the mile 11 hill and the last mile. So, without further delay I will give you my stats:

13.24 miles (hmm....what happened to 13.1?): 1:56.12

Mile 1 8:23
Mile 2 8:29
Mile 3 8:23
Mile 4 8:26
Mile 5 8:16
Mile 6 8:41
Mile 7 8:44
Mile 8 8:58
Mile 9 8:54
Mile 10 9:29
Mile 11 8:53
Mile 12 9:26
Mile 13 9:03
Mile .19 1:42 (I had G. Money set for 13.19 miles, just in case...so it shut off
and I had to start it back up, so that is the random minutes and
seconds here, so much for 13.1 mile course.)
Mile .04 0:17

Average pace: 8:46
total distance: 13.24 miles
total time 1:56.12

Personal best by about 5 minutes!

So here I am pre-race! It was a great day for the sleeves! I knew I would warm up but boy was it cold at the start! And that growth on my leg? He wanted to come along....I kicked him off somewhere around mile 3. =)

So here I am after my run. I am alive and smiling. Can't ask for much more than that! As soon as I was able I texted Mel and told her, "I did it! 1:57.48 gun time!" I wandered up to the water and found Mel standing at the entrance to the tent. I fell into her hug and cried on her shoulder. I had done it! Alone on the course I made my goal, but not without support from all of you, not without Mel encouraging me, not without Jessica hanging with my Little Buddy. So I was not alone...this was a joint effort. I could not have done it without all the people who I have surrounded myself with and who are kind enough to allow me to surround myself with them (Red, Mel, An the RB, Jessica, Kerrie, Zoe, Amber, Jill, Michaela...and so many more, all of you my faithful followers who believe in me {I feel like I am accepting a Grammy Award}).

Full race report tomorrow....

Today I am grateful for:

A wonderful run!

Sharing my birthday with awesome friends!

A sub 2! Finally!!!

No rain during the entire race! It finally poured on us as we walked to the car!

Hot showers.

Another birthday and a year of personal growth behind me. Where will this next year take me?