My sport is your sport's punishment

That's the slogan on the shirt that I wore in the race, and that's exactly what it felt like--punishment. I don't know if it was the lingering chest cold that I have, the fact that the course seemed to be all hills, or if it was just one of those days, but the half-marathon was one rough ride. By the time I made it to the three mile mark, I knew I was in trouble. I still had miles numbering in double digits left to run!

I hit a wall somewhere around the fifth mile which lasted until about the eighth mile. After the eighth mile I somehow kicked it in a little better and managed to complete the rest with less difficulty. I was able to finish the race in about 2 hours and 12 minutes, which isn't too bad.

Some highlights of the race:

• the two dudes who dressed up as Jamaican bobsledders (being a Halloween-ish race, costumes were encouraged) and ran together inside a cardboard bobsled--how in the world did they keep the exact same pace as each other, or more importantly, how did they run 13.1 miles without using their arms???
• the lady dressed up as Cruella De'Ville with her pack of dalmatians
• getting finished with mile eight
• seeing Aaron twice during the race with Caeden (a little monkey) and Avery (a little bee)
• running side-by-side with Sarah for a while
• all five of us who'd been training with each other finishing the race
• my dad at the finish line, cheering me on (Aaron tried to make it, but the racing gods were against him as he saw me at mile 12 & then couldn't quite get to the end in time)
• the sweet sip of Gatorade at about mile eight
• getting a massage afterwards!

All-in-all it felt great to train for and complete the race. Congrats to my gal pals who also did a great job!