The Anti-Running Runner

Yes, it's mid-November and I'm just getting around to the Halloween Halfathon. In a nutshell, Team Hea and Bria had a blast! Before: Pumped up and ready to go! I'm Wonder Woman (the lazy version), Hea is a cat After: We did awesome! Mike helped us keep a good pace We finished faster than I expected: 2:17:52 chip time. That includes a bathroom stop. We averaged 10:37 mins/mile. I'm really happy about that! Because Mike came as support, he helped push Hea and I along perhaps a bit faster than if he hadn't been there. Not too bad, though. Mile 11 was the longest of all (strange how that works), but we still managed a strong finish. Hubby brought Lance to cheer, but I had told him to expect us no sooner than 2:25. Thinking he was early, he showed up literally one minute after we finished. But he did capture the above photo of all three of us. One of the best things about this race (besides the wonderful organization, fun medals, and route through Ft....

Yes, we finished! When I left off, Alyssa and I were halfway done. We had gotten water twice so far, and we both felt pretty good. At Mile 14, we saw a porta-potty and both decided we needed to use it. There was no line (always nice) and it was clean. Afterward, we got water at the station and went over one last small bridge heading inland.  The next two miles, we went through some neighborhoods with lots of shade. Although we had none before, I hadn't felt overheated. I think the temp at that point just broke 60. I took my first nibble of Shot Blok at the Mile 16 water station. Just before Mile 18, we hopped onto the Pinellas Trail heading north back toward Clearwater. The full sun quickly warmed us up, but I wasn't too hot. I mean, it was still at least twenty degrees cooler than the last marathon. And all that water I drank the day before helped, I'm sure. But poor Alyssa was feeling it. I should mention that she didn't really train for this race...