I finished the Half Marathon Saturday morning with an official time of 2:04:46, or about 4 minutes slower than my goal time of 2 hours.  As you’ll remember from my post a few days ago, I was 100 percent positive that I would beat that goal.  I had no idea what the weather would have in store for me, and apparently, neither did the weatherman.  

Christi, Grandma Shirley, and the kids

Race morning was supposed to be rainy, cloudy, wet, windy, and the high should have been only about 64 for the day.  So, I figured that the high for the race would be somewhere near 60.  Boy, was I ever wrong.  Our high temperature during the race was (and I’m guessing here) over 70, the sun was out, and we had somewhere near 90% humidity.  

Normally, I would be fine running under these conditions, but Saturday I wasn’t prepared.  So, that slowed me down quite a bit.  With the unexpected humidity, I just couldn’t get my pace up where I wanted it to be, and when I had a little wind to dry out the air, it turned out to be a lot of wind blowing right at me, slowing me down even further.  

So, all in all, I’m actually very happy with 2:04.  I’m actually proud that I kept the pace as well as I did, and I’m very impressed with my time.  

Christi, the kids, and Grandma Shirley (a.k.a. www.shirleyannesheart.com) came down to the finish line, and it was a great motivator to see them as I got near the end.  I could see the signs they made and hear lots of people cheering.
Seeing Cooper and Sarah still wearing their medals from Friday night’s Kid’s Run really let me know that they were proud of their accomplishment, and it was a lot of fun to show them my medal, too.  While going through the runner’s food tent with Cooper, they even gave him a banana.  I, of course, told him that they gave him the banana because he was obviously a runner wearing his medal!

This was, over all, a very fun event for me, and I can’t wait to do another half marathon.  I’ve even signed up for the full marathon next year, to give myself a new goal to shoot for.

Almost There!