MS Gulf Coast Half Marathon

MS GULF COAST HALF MARATHON... has been COMPLETED. 

[exhale]

Last night we drove to the Welcome Center to pick up our race packets. Packet not really being the best word to describe it. We "checked in" and picked up our t-shirt. My number being 127 and Ginny's number being 126. They should have swapped our numbers though... cause that would fit our ages! But oh well!!!!

We then scooted on over to Academy sports in Slidell,.. where we found some sweet deals. We didn't realize things were on such *drastic* sale until we checked out. I was able to get a pair of polka dot nike shorts for $3.40, a nike hat for $2.01, a nike shirt for $4.50, and nike compression shorts for $3.41. What a deal, right? I was pretty pumped. If I would have known that things were going to be so cheap, I would've grabbed some more things. But oh well. 

hank getting in some tv time.

Anyways. We stayed at the Days Inn Slidell... where the mattresses were fabulous. It was definitely an older hotel... but we were only staying one night there... and only the mattresses really mattered. I went to bed around 9:30 or 10:00... only to wake up at 1:30am thinking that it was time to get up. haha. We got up around 6 this morning.. and started getting ready for our day. 

Ginny & I had shirts made for our half. The weather was supposed to be low 40's at the start of the race and high 60's at the end of the race. WEELLLL, at least that is what the forecast said when we ordered our LONG sleeve shirts. Little did we know, we were going to wake up this morning to 70 degree weather, in which long sleeve shirts are definitely not appropriate. So we decided to take a quick picture in our new shirts, and then change into more appropriate attire. 

Skip ahead a little bit. I got to meet up with one of my old friends from xray school, Mr. Clint Lambert. I dont believe I have seen him in the last two years, so seeing him was really fun. Of course Mr. Lambert is super fast and finished the half in less than 2 hours! Yep, he's fast!

Clint & me,... wow... I didnt know my hair was trying to fly away. lol.

Of course Hank & Kevin were there to watch Ginny & me run, along with my mom, dad, and sister, Karly. Its really nice to have people on the sidelines to offer support. Especially upon return of the race.. its nice that some of the cheering is coming from people who love you and are proud to see you succeed.

The race was about 20 minutes late getting started, because we had to wait on several cars to make it through the security gate. Once the air horn was blown... a huge mass of runners slowly moved out onto the course.  It took me, Ginny, and our friend Jeremy a good 20-30 seconds to actually get moving with the crowd. But once we got to moving, people slowly started to spread out and made it easier to gain speed to our normal pace.

Throughout the race, Jeremy stayed with me. Even walking with me.. which came way too often. It was nice to have someone to stay paced with me and to talk to throughout the run. It definitely made the time fly by. Some days just aren't meant to be race days, and I believe that today was one of those for me. I had a really hard time warming my legs up and getting my breathing right. I struggled through most of the run. But thats okay, because I finished and set a personal record for the half marathon. The next one that I do, I will have a time to try & beat.

my new $3 shorts!! (our second outfits)

Ginny & I have been looking forward to doing this half marathon since June. I'm glad it has finally come & gone.. and we are both able to say that we DID finish a half. 13.1 miles is no joke... especially on a hot, humid morning with lots of wind. :) My finish time was 2:32:22, I believe. But we will know for sure when they post the official results!