I was nervous going into this race due to personal issues causing my training to plummet for a month leading up to the race. But, I had made plans with a friend to do this race and I knew I was capable of doing the distance... so off we went!

We drove up the morning of the race and did packet pickup. We didn't have much trouble finding parking, but we were there an hour early so we got lucky. There wasn't much parking in the area so other might have had trouble. Pickup was quick and easy... checked in with one lady, turned around and got my bib and shirt from another. Done. They had a massive spread of race clothing available for sizes from 24 month to a men's 3X and everything between. I could have dropped a lot of money on the women's clothing, but ended up just buying my 2 year-old a sweater so he can show off his running mama.

We headed back to the car to drop off our purchases and layer-up (it was high 30s... BRRRR), then wandered the booths before the national anthem started and we had to dart to the back of the pack to start. I'm slow to begin with, so having not trained properly I knew we would need to start at the back.

With that, we were off! The course started in a circle around a neighborhood before heading out onto the trail. Having never raced outside of Illinois before, I didn't know what to expect. The elevation didn't look too bad from the research I did, though.

The course was beautiful. Almost completely tree-lined and flat with bridges, lakes, farms, rivers... just gorgeous. Knowing we weren't going for a PR and just wanted to have some fun and stress relief, we stopped for selfies along the way many times and just admired the beauty of the area.

As we approached the turnaround we started seeing the faster runners who had already started to head back. We cheered them on, congratulating them on being over halfway done, and they cheered us on and thanked us for support. It was a great environment throughout the whole race. Not to mention the people blocking traffic and handing out water.... the ENERGY THEY HAD! WOW! Specifically there was a group of girls who had the radio in their truck up loud, they were dancing and singing, and high-fiving the racers. They were great!

We did a run/walk for the entire race, picking up the running a bit on the last half. If it wasn't for Tammy, I would have taken another 45 minutes to finish that thing. She helped push me to run just a little bit longer during each run interval and walk just a little bit less each time. It turned into a game by the last 5 miles, trying to pass the lady in front of us who seemed to run every time we ran.

We probably passed that lady at around mile 11 or 11.5 and cheered her on as we went by. Came across another lady at mile 12 who was really struggling. After pumping her up and emphasizing there was less than a mile to go, we took off again and saw that she had started jogging a bit more (she was the last to cross the finish line later and we made sure to hoot and holler as she finished). The last I think quarter mile.... ugh. A couple of paramedics on bicycles went by and said there was just one more little hill left and we were done. Yeah... that wasn't a little hill. I yelled after them that it was not a little hill and they laughed. My feet were like bricks by this point, and I had to walk up that "little" hill. At the top though, we could see the finish and sprinted to the end.

Being one of the last people to race, there weren't many people around us which allowed the announcer to actually call out our names as we crossed the finish. That was pretty cool! Even though I'm slow, that has never happened for me before.

I would love to run this race again next year. The course and crowd were definitely ones to come back to, and the cause is a good one. I have multiple family members with Parkinsons, so it's a cause close to my heart.

Great job, everyone! Can't wait to come back next year!