You look fast...(race recap)

I went to the expo on Friday with my husband. Honestly, I thought there would be more stuff (both free swag and booths in general). I did end up getting a headband (needed a wicking one) and some beans, but we were in and out pretty quickly. I am sure that Saturday was a total nightmare. 

Saturday was a rest day. I did chores around the house and kept busy to keep my mind off the race. We also went to see a movie "Lincoln Lawyer" which received very good reviews, but we left wondering why. I went to bed at my normal time and had my alarm set for 5am to get up and have something to eat. I figured if we left the house at 6am we would be fine.

I got up and got dressed. My husband (who was going to cheer me on) slept a bit longer. When he got up and saw me, he said to me "you look fast in that outfit". Boy, was that the most perfect thing to say or what?

I threw on a long sleeve shirt over the top and he asked about moving my number to that shirt. You should have seen his face when I said I am going to throw it on the side of the course somewhere between mile 1 and 2. He didn't know that people do that throughout the race. I wore something that was too big and kinda worn out at this point for donation. Best thing - now I need a replacement top, right? : )

We get to where we were 1 mile from the exit we need and we hit this:

20 minutes and we moved about 20 car lengths. It was now less than an hour from the race start time. Another 20 minutes and we are finally moving. I was getting stressed, but figured there was no way the shuttles were going to strand racers in the village area.

We got parked and made our way to the shuttles. This was easily a quarter mile, but I used it as my warm up. Porta stop (more on that later) and we get on the bus. We arrive at the race start after corrals were already starting to cross the start line. My corral was the next one to go, so I hustled it up toward the starting line and started walking with the others. My husband caught up and gave me a kiss, said you are going to do awesome, have fun, and see you at the halfway point.

I felt great. The weather was perfect and the course went through some really neat parts of town. I was so excited my husband was waiting for me at the halfway point. 5 miles went by in no time, then 6, and somewhere between 6 and 7 there was my husband! I went over, gave him a kiss, and kept on going. He said I looked like I was just on a short jog and looked like I had a ton of energy. Thanks for that husband!

The entire race I did not let myself get into my head. I enjoyed the scenery, the bands, and just listened to my body. I just kept thinking "You've got this. Enjoy the race and take it easy."

There it was! 10 miles. Only a 5K to go. "You've got this. Keep going. You're fine." Around the corner and there was the finish line! It was hard to know my time as I didn't see the clock when I started the race, but I told myself that as long as I finished under 2:30, I was going to be happy.

My time: 2:15. I had so much gas in the tank the last 4 miles of the race, I know I *could* have had a faster time, but you know what? It doesn't matter. What matters is I did it, I had FUN, and I know that I will achieve my main goal of returning to camp tomorrow with no recovery day needed.

I have some other thoughts, but I'll get those in another post. Here's a pic of the shirt and medal.

NSV - I requested a small shirt. When I went to pick it up at the expo, the guy looked at me and the ticket and said, you won't be happy with a small. Let me give you an extra small.

Front of shirt and medal

This thing could double as a weapon.

Back of shirt. It's the neatest part in my opinion. It is in the middle running top to bottom.