So the race was a little over a week ago and very fun! It was nice to run in pretty much perfect weather after the rain in Portland. I did not take it for granted! I was able to park at the start because I had made plans for K to meet me at the finish which allowed me to sleep in a little bit. Yay! It was still dark when I arrived about 6:30AM. There were already long lines for the port-a-potties, but they moved fast. I chatted with a nice woman who mostly did Ironman competitions. Yes, you can even make friends with people in line for the bathroom when you are at a race. :)
I went to find my friends at corral 3, but got worried I would never find them when I saw the sea of people. I did end up chatting with the 2:45:00 pacer. She was wearing a feather boa, butterfly wings and a wig. I was very impressed and she promised a a good time to all that stayed with her. :) Amy found me and I felt like I won the race because I really thought that I would not find them!
I usually speed up my pace at the beginning because I don't like to be in the middle of lots of people, but B caught up to me and we were able to run most of the race together which was really awesome and helped it go fast. I loved the short section on the canal since that is what we train on and it was great. I definitely got tired about mile 10 and told B to go for it. I had to walk more those last few miles, but was able to pick it up around the 2:30 pacing group and finished with a time of 2:29:02 which is pretty good for me. My new goal is to stay under 2:35:00 in the half marathons.
The medal with the charm inside is awesome and the brunch at Z Tejas was perfect especially the mimosa bar. It was a great race and I was proud to run it in honor and in memory of some awesome ladies.
