I would like to have said that I crushed this race, but then I'd be lying. Conditions were not the best, but I conquered another half marathon and that's all that matters. I also had a fantastic time at the expo so really, I have no real complaints. Without further ado, my race weekend report.

Saturday - I had a pretty difficult 3 mile shake out run in the morning, but shrugged it off and headed to the expo. I parked at the Old Town Trolley station and made my way down to the Convention Center for Bib pick up. I picked up my bib and made my way through the vendors stopping at the Nuun, HoneyStinger, and Orange Mud booth to name a few. After picking up all the necessities, I grabbed a nice lunch with friends and called it a day. Luckily, I had little problems sleeping early. :)

Race day - I woke up at 4 am and was out the door by 4:15 am. I parked at the trolley station again and made my way down with very no issues. From the trolley stop, it was about a 1.5 mile and a half walk up to the start, which was a nice warm up walk. :) I met up with friends and at 6:25 am, I crossed the start line. From the start of the race, I could feel that something was off. It was taking a lot more effort to run and when the sun came out around 7 am, I knew I was toast. I had forgotten my visor and my sunglasses so for a good portion of the race, I was squinting and wiping the sweat off my brow. Sigh.

The course itself was very fun. You start off fairly flat and then head downhill. Another mile later, you get some rolling hills. I saw the mile 4.5 bar with their assortment of alcoholic beverages. I ran the blue mile a little bit later, where volunteers hold up flags and there are posters of US troops that have fallen lined along the road. By mile 7, I was pretty much toast. My left foot was tingling non-stop and the ball of my right foot felt like a big blister was coming on. I started overheating and had to pour a few cups of water over my head to cool down and around mile 9, I started doing a run/walk. At mile 10.5, we hit the last really large hill and it was mostly downhill from there. Taiko drummers were performing at the top to keep us going and goodness, I needed every little bit of it. Running downhill was easier, but I was running out of gas.

Then, an angel by the name of Vanessa, came running by. She's not really an angel, but in this scenario, she was mine. :P Vanessa was someone I met through a friend and when she ran by me, she told me she'd run with me. I didn't want to slow her down since I knew she ran faster than me, but she insisted that she would stay with me. For the rest of the miles, she stayed with my pace and kept me going with her pep talks. I pushed when I didn't think I could anymore and was able to stay at a moderate pace. I crossed the finish line destroyed, but because of her, I was able to complete the course in under 2 hours, which was my original goal. Thanks to her, I finished it in 1:59:13. :)

I spent the next hour or so basking in the glory of my finish. Although it was warm during the course, it was perfect for when I was cooling down. I easily grabbed my gear and was able to just lay on the lawn and rest. :)

Not every race is going to perfect and this race was a perfect example of that. But I learned a lot from this experience. I learned that some days, you just have bad runs and some of those days are during races. But even on those days, you can still achieve a lot if you have the right people beside you. :)