Finishers!

THREE half-marathoners, baby!

Well, we did it.  I didn't go into detail on the bloggity blog but I'm going to be completely honest with you: Aaron and I (and Baby E by association) probably had about ZERO business taking on this half mary on Sunday.  Aaron had been running intermittently but because he's such a good pup dad, Scout was cramping his training schedule just a tad.  Even though I have been running consistently, I definitely would not qualify it as "training"...treadmill running (with an incline, but still), controlled temperature, bathroom nearby, nothing longer than 6 or 7 miles since I've been pregnant.  Nonetheless, we rocked and rolled (ba-dum-dum) Dallas and lived to tell about it!

Of course, the race was pressure-free thanks to my brother who made free entries possible.  And he got us some VIP wristbands after the race so that we could get some food and free massages at the VIP tents!  I'm hoping his relationship with RnR grows and we have an opportunity to take some race-cation trips in the future...

I'll spare you most of the details of the race but basically, Aaron did great.  He started a few corrals in front of me but was right there at the finish line waiting for me when I crossed it.  I really enjoyed running this race.  Here's a few little tidbits from the course:

-I loved the wave starts.  There was none of that please disregard my first mile pace because we were packed like sardines business.  The entire race was really well organized and executed, we were impressed. 

-I started out real fast--like, not-pregnant pace, for the first mile and knew that I needed to, um, cut it out.  Stat.  I ran without music, without fuel, without sunglasses (just call me Squints McGee) completely dependent on the course support for water and gatorade (stopped at every single station) and used almost every bathroom...for fear that I would have to gasp, WALK, if my bladder bothered me. 

-Speaking of walking, I walked at mile 12.  Yep, 1.1 miles more and I could have done this thing without any walking.  If you know me, you know that I hate walking during running....don't do it, won't do it.  But my bladder was playing tricks on me and depsite my many bathroom breaks, I still had a little bit of that urge so that's why I gave into walking.  In the grander scheme of things, no biggie.

-Corral 13 people have a good time.  I have a newfound respect for speedwalkers because I don't think I could walk for that long (see above comment about my love for walking, haha).  At one point, I had a really nice conversation with a man who had only ever run 9 miles in his whole life.  My heart almost sweeled with pride for him and what he was doing and going to accomplish that day.  I also ended up talking to a lady who told me all about how she ran during her two pregnancies.  Although these people may have technically "slowed me down", I tried really hard to enjoy everything about this race.  My gratitude to my body for allowing me to do something like this outweighed any desire to really be competitive--or unfriendly!  Funny story, at one point, this guy was picking up some water cups and he jokingly said to me, "Not going to lie but you probably won't win this race today".  It was totally playful and, well, true, and I definitely didn't take offense.  But I also wasn't going to let a golden opportunity to be sassy pants pass me by either!  In return I said, "That's ok, I'm just happy that I'm out here doing this 19 weeks pregnant"...crickets...then, "Um, that's awesome".  You have a nice day sir:)

-Course support was pretty good.  There was water, gatorade, and Gu at mile 9.  I thought there would be more bands along the route but the ones they had were pretty good and made the atmosphere fun.  They also had a bunch of different cheerleading groups and don't forget the 4 Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders at the Finish Line!

-Speaking of the finish line, RnR knows how to swag.  There were bananas, bagels, Rold Gold pretzels, Snickers marathon energy bars, water, gatorade, chocolate milk, orange slices...and maybe something else!  In the VIP tent, there were bagels and cream cheese, fruit, energy bars, yogurt, pasta, chicken, and tons of drinks.  Oh, and everyone was entitled to a free Michelob Ultra too. 

I'm sure there's tons of info I'm forgetting but bring on the pictures, right?

The Starting Line

The Finish Line

I love the Ferris Wheel in the background

The aftermath!

We just got the official race proofs today and thanks to my work wifey, I was able to get copies of them!

Before the race

Makin it look easy...

Havin' fun Baby E?

That is one happy mama-to-be!

So grateful for the physical ability to do something like this.  And such a fun story to tell Baby E  in a few years too!  We were so lucky to have my brother and T with us for the weekend too.  It definitely made it a fun, celebratory weekend!!