Race Recap & LOTS of pictures

Like the title says..I have a lot of pictures to show you so I hope you are comfortable....

I woke up Sunday morning at 4:50 am. I was feeling pretty good other than my right foot being a little sore.  After my shower I had breakfast. For breakfast I wanted to go with the usual to be safe...I decided on toast with peanut butter and agave on top. I was planning on having a green monster but decided it would probably be safer if I didn't. I wasn't sure if it would upset my stomach and that was not something I wanted to risk. We left my house at about 6:40 am. The half marathon didn't start until 8:30 am but I wanted to be there early to see my friend Chris start the full marathon at 7:40 am. I wasn't sure how far we would have to park or how crazy the traffic would be and I thought it was better to be safe than sorry.

I put my number on....

Made sure my ipod was ready to go.

Stretched......

Went to the bathroom....

I had my finger ready on the start button of my Polar....And we were off!!!!

This was about the 7th mile mark. I was feeling really good and confident. I was so happy to see Craig and my sister there. It's such an automatic boost when you see your family and friends cheering you on.

My right foot was bugging me but I decided that I would ignore it as much as possible. I knew that if I focused on my foot that I would not enjoy the race. By this time I kind of knew that we wouldn't be meeting our "goal" time of 2:45 because of the pace we were going at. Every mile that passed by I would look at my time and know that even if we did pick up the pace we were probably not going to finish until after 3 hours....which I'm not going to lie was really hard for me to be okay with. I really had my heart set on 2:45 and knowing that I would finish later then the my first half marathon time was really hard for me. I kept my spirits high and enjoyed most of the race. It was a lot of fun being able to run another half with Cristina.

Here we are about to cross the finish line. I wanted to capture this moment on camera and recorded most of it. Craig and my sister were there at this point and I felt great. Knowing that we were almost done and seeing my family was so emotional.

After crossing the finish line we got our finishing metals and also snacks. I took more than what they probably wanted me to. LOL.

My family

My friends

My love

My running partner...Cristina

and her dog Fred

My injury.....

I knew that it was bugging me the whole run but I didn't think that it would be bruised or swollen. It's a bit better today. It will be back to normal in no time. Right now I'm feeling great about the run. I know that I want to do more and more. Even though every part of your body hurts and you swear to not run another race in your life...once it's over you feel AMAZING. It's one of the best feelings in the world. Next year I plan on running the P.F.Chang's Full Marathon. I'm nervous to start training for it but I know it's something I want to do and determined to do.

Question: What's one thing in your life that you know you want to achieve and know it will be hard but want it anyway?

Betty