The weathermen were forecasting high winds (gusts up to 40 mph) and rain with a cold front moving in. I was a little nervous about the forecasted conditions because during my training runs I would run mid-day when conditions were pretty perfect. Luckily, the rain and cold front held off until we finished. We did have some wind but all in all...conditions were pretty nice.
We arrived at the race site about 8:00 and the race was scheduled to start at 8:30. I ran to the restroom while Bryan was still at the car getting his shoes on. He said he would meet me up at the start line. When I walked out of restroom they were making announcements for all runners to make their way to start line and they were going to get us out a little early because of weather conditions. The start line quickly became super crowded and I couldn't find Bryan and he couldn't find me! We didn't have our phones because of the forecasted rain...we didn't want them to get ruined. I was a little sad, nervous and unsure about what to do. They made a second and final call to line up at the start line so I did. I jumped in the middle of the crowd...thinking that if Bryan was behind me he would catch me on the trail. Seconds later the gun sounded, the half marathon had begun and I was missing my hubby/my running partner. I ran and ran looking ahead, waiting for him to run up from behind me. On mile 2 I saw him up ahead running towards me. Bryan waited until everyone started and made sure I wasn't still there, then hoped in the car and drove to a Trinity Park and ran the trail backwards looking for me as runners were yelling at him telling him he was running the wrong direction. HaHa! My sweet hubby said he wasn't going to leave without me. I guess he is sweeter than me. I didn't know what to do either but I just figured we would meet up on the run somewhere!
Once we were reconnected, I was so happy to have him by my side from mile 3-13. We had a fun run and ran at a great pace. We finished the half marathon in 1 hour and 55 minutes which was an average pace of 8 minute 46 second per mile.
Since Bryan never crossed the start line his time chip wasn't activated so he said I was the only official finisher. After finishing the 13 miles we then had to run another 3 miles back to the car that he left at the park...in my book he is an official finisher of the half marathon too!
Hear are my stats from my 1st half marathon...
Total time...1 hour, 55 minutes, 29.9 seconds
Overall - Finished 98th out of 576 half marathon participants
Female 30-34 - Finished 9th out of 56 runners
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Here we are TOGETHER after our 1st half marathon! It won't be our last half marathon...we might even have a full marathon in us!
