Rock It!

This morning, my alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. I rolled out of bed, took the puppies out and got dressed. I then travels 30 min to downtown Dallas, to be more specific, Fair Park. I grabbed my stuff, locked up my car and stood in line waiting to get onto a school bus.

What was I doing you ask? I was about to run my first ever HALF MARATHON. Yep, that's right, I'm crazy and wanted to spend my Sunday running 13.1 miles.

The buses took us on a little 10 minute ride to the heart of downtown Dallas, City Hall. The sun was putting out a soft glow on the surrounding buildings and all the runners were busy with their last potty runs and meeting with their groups.

This spot, is where the Rock n' Roll marathon began.

I meet up with one of the Run On (this is who I did my prep classes with) coaches and her run group. My run group was spread out throughout the corrals, and she was in mine. It was nice to have someone to start the run with. She dropped back at mile 5 to help her group.

At 8 a.m. corral 1 was off and the office timer began. My corral was further back so by the time I got to the starting line the race was already 15 miles in. This my friends, is why it's important to keep your own time so you really know your official time when you are done.

As for the route, it took us throughout downtown and weaved us in and out of neighborhoods. It was great. The only downfall was that it got hot pretty fast. Luckily, I only saw one person throw up and I did not see anyone faint.

Now for my run, as I mentioned earlier, I had a run partner to start off the race with. Soon after she left, I got a pain in my foot so I stopped at the nearest medical tent to get it checked out. Nothing major, just a sock rubbing me the wrong way. So they wrapped me up and I was on my way. It gave me a little trouble throughout the run so I just quick walked (only about two min slower than my pace)when I need a break, about 2 miles total. However, mile 7 to 8 was one mile of hill, and by no means did I walk that bad boy. Ran up the whole way!

It was amazing though when I turned that last corner and saw the final finish line track. By my watch (remember, all the times were based off of the first corral) I crossed the line at 2 hours and 49 min. My goal was to finish by three.

My friends Gab and Andrew meet up with me after I mazed my way through the finish area. They had ice cold water for me, and once I could walk again, we grabbed some lunch.

Overall, it was a great experience from start to finish. I will do one again I'm sure but for now I am just basking in glow of finishing my first half.