Yesterday I ran the Richmond McDonalds Half Marathon. It was amazing!! I really only have great memories from this race! I am so so happy I did it. It is amazing how good I feel about myself after running this race. I set a goal. I trained. I accomplished it. I loved it!!
My good friend Kami and I woke up at 4 am on Saturday morning and drove down to Richmond. We sat in the warm car before braving the cold weather and lining up at the start line. We met up with a couple of our friends who were kind enough to pick up our race packets the night before. (Thanks again Molly and April!) I wish we would have gotten a picture with them but time got away from us. There were 16,000 people running this race! It was packed! It was so fun to have random people cheering us along the whole way. There were bands playing, water and powerade stations, and even vodka being offered. (Don’t worry friends I didn’t drink any!) haha. On our race bib they had our names and a few people cheered for my friend Kami after seeing her name. It was pretty cool. It ended up being a beautiful day. Cold yes, but beautiful. The sun was shining and the leaves were gorgeous. It doesn’t get better than running in beautiful weather with gorgeous scenery and good friends.
As far as the actual running goes it was a fabulous run. I felt energized by all the people and we just kept running and running. At around mile 10 or 11 I started to hurt. My legs didn’t want to do it anymore but when I slowed to get water I found it hurt just as bad to walk as it did to run so I ran. I had the goal of finishing in under 2 hours. I finished in 1 hr 59 min. HA now that is a close call! Ben came with the kids to cheer me on at the finish line. Because there were so many people he didn’t see me run in but just the fact that he drove all that way with the kids that early in the morning once again gets him some major husband points. He has been so supportive of my running and I am so grateful for him. I married a good one!!!
I love, love, love the memories I have from this race and I am so grateful I did it. Thank you Kami for being such a great running partner. You rock!
Did I mention what a great experience this was. It was a great experience. haha
Now I think I am going to let my wallet take a break from running races for a few months. 🙂
You go girl! Your time was way good, seriously that is no easy feat!
Sounds like it was a great race! I love the energy you can get from those gigantic races. It’s an experience like no other!
Vaughn’s missed me at quite a few finish lines too. It gets crazy!
Try some local 5k/10k races, they’re a lot cheaper!
It is awesome when you find a great running partner. Doesn’t happen that often. Luckily my husband has become an awesome runner- something he never thought he would do. Now I get to take my running partner everywhere I go. Pretty awesome, hu?
Yay, Brittany! You should feel so good about what you did. Congratulations.