Hello!
I survived my first half marathon! And so did Lauren (my friend who did it with me). It was a great experience and a fun accomplishment to check off the the ole to-do list. Here is a recap of the entire day.
Yesterday, Jenna, Lauren, and I walked downtown to the Hilton Garden Inn to register for the race and pick up our t-shirts. The shirts were so nice! Dry-Fit long sleeved shirts…too bad it was literally 98 degrees outside today. It will be good to have for fall though. Since the race is women’s only, Paul Mitchell The School Indianapolis was one of the sponsors and gave out free manicures! Of course the three of us took advantage of that.
This morning, my mom, Brian, and I all met up with Lauren bright and early so that we could walk to the race together. We were all ready to go along with 1,998 other women. This was the first annual Indianapolis Women’s Half Marathon, and if I were the judge, I would say it was a success.
Can you spot me in the crowd waiting to start!?
Mom and Brian waited for me at miles 4 and 12. This was at mile 4…still going strong!
I like to make strange faces while I run…
There is Lauren!
In between mile 12 Brian gave Mom a little tour of downtown. He showed her the Sheraton, which is our reception venue, the church we hope to get married in, and a little area with cute shops, bars, and restaurants called Mass Ave.
By mile 12, my little hand held water bottle was empty and really annoying me…so this is a picture of me tossing the bottle to Mom.
About to cross the finish line!
I ended up finishing in 2 hours and 7 minutes in 291st place overall and 26th in my age group out of 107.
Everyone got medals at the end. I felt so accomplished at the end of the race, but for some reason as soon as I saw the finish line I wanted to cry!! I cry for a lot of silly reasons, but I have never cried at the end of a run. As soon as I saw my Mom and Brian, the tears just started flowing. Then, I basically shoved a banana in my face.
Brian had my Tervis full of ice water for me at the end and I literally chugged the entire thing so fast. I never knew I could drink so much water without going to the bathroom (I am notorious for having the world’s smallest bladder).
This is my sign for 13.1…it was hard to do by myself so it looks more like 4.
They had bloody marys and mimosas waiting at the finish line too. I usually LOVE bloody mary’s, so I was really excited to have one at the end. Unfortunately, they tasted like straight vodka….not my cup of tea. So, I just ate the two celery sticks out of it instead.
They also had little sandwich wraps, shrimp, and a chocolate fountain to dip strawberries in. That strawberry tasted so amazing, and I think Brian really enjoyed the wraps and shrimp ;).
Then, Maelyn (she was a little sick so she switch to the 5K race this morning) and I spotted the massage station. We waited in line for an hour…but it was soooo worth it! I am only wearing one shoe in the picture because it literally felt like a knife was in my toe for about half of the race because of a callus on the bottom of my big toe. Don’t worry, it’s better now!
I did a little pre-massage stretching.
Once I was on the table I had no idea what I even wanted done. I just told him to work his magic, and he started rubbing on muscles that I didn’t even know were sore!
Maelyn enjoyed her massage too!
This was such a fun thing to do with friends! I can’t wait for the next one 🙂
I then came home to eat lunch. I had left over caprese salad from last night, cheese, veggies and dip, and unpictured trail mix. I find that when I do these long runs, it is better for me to eat little bits throughout the day rather than one giant meal.
After lunch, I then soaked in the bath and watched the season finale from Desperate Housewives as a refresher since the season starts back up in a couple of weeks!
All in all it was an amazing experience. I will go into more detail about my training schedule tomorrow 🙂
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