Wow! What a fun race. My buddy, Kevin, from my running club at work decided to run the race at the last minute and signed up just before the deadline earlier this week. He left the company a couple of months ago, and we'd been emailing each other back and forth about the race. I didn't have his phone number, so I wasn't sure if we'd find each other at the start. Since there were 20,000 runners, they had multiple starts, or waves. You were supposed to line up for the wave that corresponded with your estimated finish time. Ideally, I would have placed myself in Wave 2 or 3, but I got stuck in the longest porta-potty line I've ever seen, and ended up starting with Wave 6. I was annoyed by this, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise, because I ran into Kevin right as we were lining up! Yay! We ran together for the first 6 miles, which was great because he helped me maintain a steady pace and we got to catch up on the past few months! At the 6-mile marker, he decided to slow down a little, and I wanted to maintain our 11-minute mile pace, so I went on ahead. Shortly thereafter, I saw another running buddy from work, Catherine, and cheered for her! Without anyone to talk to anymore, I wanted to listen to the playlist Albert made for me, but I couldn't get my new iPhone to turn on! Boo. So, I wore it on my arm, with my headphones hitting me in the face for all 13 miles and didn't even get to listen to any music...
With about a half mile to go, I spotted another green shirt - my running club buddy, Nick! I cheered for him, too, and when he turned around and saw me, he said, "You're just what I need right now!" We ran the last half mile together, and even crossed the finish line together. I waited for Kevin at the end and congratulated him on finishing his first half marathon! My favorite treat at the finish? Chocolate milk! Yum! I know I should have taken a picture on the new iPhone, but was too tired to try to figure out the camera. Hopefully the official race photos will be posted soon.
I was pleased with my official chip time: 2:22:17, and was proud that I ran the whole way!
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