On Your Mark, Get Set........GO!!

Happy Monday Everyone,

I hope everyone had a marvelous weekend! Mine was definitely fun, exciting, and slightly exhausting. I finally ran the White Rock 1/2 marathon this weekend (I feel like I've been talking about it forever)! The race was a blast!

A cold front came in on Saturday night (of course), so it was a cool 34 degrees the day of the race with a wind chill of 25. Brrrrrrrr! Thankfully, the race started at Fair Park in Dallas so they had a nice warm building for us to hang out in before the race started. This was such a nice and unexpected perk. I had to stand in the freezing cold for almost an hour before the last 1/2 I did. Not Fun! There were also some nice decorations set up in there. I think there was some kind of Christmas event going on later, but hey I'm always a fan of giant Santas! :) (I don't think that lady behind me wanted to be in the picture.)

There were 22,000 people completing the race on Sunday! At least, that's what I think I heard the announcer say. We started and finished the race at Fair Park and ran all through downtown Dallas and Turtle Creek, which is a very nice neighborhood in north Dallas. That is probably the understatement of the century. The houses in Turtle Creek are really more like mansions. They are completely breath taking, especially at this time of year because they have some of the prettiest Christmas decorations you have ever seen. For half of the race, I didn't even realize I was running because I was so distracted by the beautiful houses.

If you look very closely at this picture (below), you can see the elite athletes about to start the race. One of them finished the marathon (yes, full marathon) about 10 minutes after I finished the half. I would LOVE to be that fast.

After they gave the elite athletes some running room (literally), they let us normal people start running. ;)

 

You can see in this picture, that some people obviously have no nerve endings because they are running in shorts and tank tops. I will admit I am a little bit of a wimp when it comes to the cold, but it was freezing on Sunday! I wore cold gear running tights, a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, a running jacket, gloves, and a head band. Luckily, my wonderful husband met met at mile 7 so I could give him my jacket and gloves, but there was no way I was giving up my headband or long sleeve shirt! It was darn cold. I even wore a heavy sweater up until the race was about to start!

Overall, the race was definitely a success. Let me preface by saying, "I am not a fast person. I generally have one speed and one speed only." I finished my last 1/2 in 2:11. My goal for this one was to beat that time and hopefully go under 2:05. When the race started, I was feeling really good. I kept telling myself, "settle down, settle down." I had trouble "settling down," and when I saw Eric and mile 7, I was ten minutes ahead of pace and could hardly believe it.

I finished in 1:55:34!!! I crossed the finish line and was pretty much in shock. I went back through the race in my head to make sure I didn't take a wrong turn somewhere and cut out a mile or two. I didn't! As soon as I stopped running, I wanted my big jacket back! :) Luckily, Eric was there with my jacket ready!

The entire time I was running, I was dreaming about coffee. So per Eric's genius suggestion, we headed straight to IHOP after the race for some coffee and Harvest Nut'N Grain pancakes! If you haven't tried them, they are amazing. I remembered to take a picture of the coffee, but I forgot to take a picture of the pancakes because I was too busy stuffing my face!

It was a great race, and I definitely plan on doing it again next year! Now, I have a few weeks "off" before I start training for the Dallas Rock N Roll in March. I will still be running (otherwise I would lose my mind), but I just won't be doing quite as many long runs.

Food for thought:
How was your weekend?
Did anyone else do the White Rock this weekend? If so, how did it go?

In health,