Dallas Rock-N-Roll Half-Marathon

Well this past Sunday, Rachel and I ran an "official" half-marathon, and it was our second time running 13.1 miles!

We picked up our packets on Saturday, Carb-o-loaded at Bucca de Beppo that evening, went to our hotel and tried to go to sleep at a decent hour. I had to spend Friday getting over a stomach bug, so I was pretty well rested and not very sleepy on Saturday night. Not to mention, there were kids running up and down the hallway of our hotel. I probably fell asleep around midnight.

We started our day by waking up at 5:00 AM, getting dressed, rolling on our PVC pipe and stretching. We were out the hotel door by 6:15AM and were worried that we were going to miss the shuttle to the start line!

Once we go to Fair park, it was evident that we would not miss the shuttle. So many people were parking, and traffic coming into Fair Park was insane. It was also SUPER chilly and windy that morning. We had dressed in our tank tops and capri running pants, as we knew that was what we would be most comfortable in running, but we still has an hour and a half until race time to stay warm. I did not take a jacket, because we didn't want to hassle with checking in our personal belongings.

The sun starting rising, we used the port-a-potty, and killed time before the race stared by taking some pictures, talking with my mom and later my grandparents.

We stood in Corral 9, and they were releasing each corral every minute at 8:00am. Once we were off I became super nervous until we had hit mile 2. There were a lot of people there, and Rachel and I were trying our best to stay together. When I am in the beginning of a run, I stress out for a bit because I know I have so much farther to go! Once I hit mile 2 or the 5K marker, I start to feel more comfortable with my stride and sort of zone out.

We didn't stop at any water stations until mile 6.5. At that time we split our Larabar in half, ate it, and downed a few cups of water. The energy was great. It was fun having spectators on the sidelines cheering for you or holding funny signs. We rounded the corner around mile 7 and we saw my mom and grandparents cheering us on! I was feeling good knowing that were more than half-way finished.

The last half of the race seemed to go by fairly quickly. before I knew it we were at mile 10, then mile 11. I was feeling strong and was confident we would have a great finish. We grabbed another cup of water at this time as well to get us through the finish line. Once we hit mile 12 it flew by. We started hauling butt because we saw what we thought was the finish line. Turned out it wasn't, but saw something else ahead and thought THAT was the finish line... nope. So we probably ran faster than normal for a good 0.4 of a mile because we kept thinking we were done. Our goal was to finish under 2 hours and 15 minutes, and our time was 2:14:52. Good thing we ran fast toward the end!

We saw Rachel's parents and husband John at the finish line. My phone had died SECONDS before I crossed the finish line... I was working too hard with 2 apps going and my music going at the same time for 2 and a half hours. I called my mom from Rachel's phone and told her I was finished and they were just getting on the train. We sat around, stretched, drank water and waited for them to get there, received congratulations and good-byes and were on our way.

Rachel, John, and I hit up Mattito's for brunch after. We saw a lot of other Half-Marathoners there as well. It was SO GOOD. One of the best buffets I've gone too. It doesn't beat the Paris in Las Vegas, but how can you go wrong with breakfast food and Tex-Mex? My 2 favorite food groups! Also, the mimosas were bottomless, and they just said to tip what you want! AMAZING. Going there again this summer. (Put it on the bucket list)

After getting home and showering, I passed out for a good 6 hours. Finished my grad school homework and then went to sleep for the rest of the night. I couldn't believe that I had to get up and go to work the next morning!

Another thing to add to the bucket list for Summer 2014 is to read. I have been reading Chelsea Handler's Uganda Be Kidding Me, and I do enjoy reading for pleasure and miss it. I want to read the Divergent series, The Next America by Paul Taylor, Thrive by Arianna Huffington, and re-read the Hunger Games Series. I also wouldn't mind re-reading all of Chelsea Handler's other books. This seems like a long list, but I bet I could cover a lot of these books out by the pool :).

Thanks for sticking around long enough to reach the end of this post! You Rock!