St. Jude Memphis Half Marathon

Well, I did it!  I completed the St Jude Memphis half marathon!  Even though it was still enjoyable, I would have to say that it was very different from my first half. 

Kelcy and I left Searcy around 4:15, putting us in Memphis around 6:30.  We went straight to the expo to pick up our race packets and shirts because it was closing at 9.  As we walked around the expo, we ran into some friends from HU (out of 16,500 people, that's a pretty big coincedence).  It was exciting to see familiar faces among the sea of people.  Kelcy and I both bought a mini fanny pack (don't know the actual name of the things but they look nothing like a fanny pack).  Knowing that we would have to carry our phones on us so we could find each other after, we wanted to get something to put them in.  Let me tell you, they worked like a charm, too.  I never once felt my iphone or chapstick during the 13.1 miles. 

Anyway, after the expo, we figured we should check-in at the hotel first, then grab a bite to eat, unless of course we passed an Olive Garden on the way to the hotel.  Our hotel.  Hmmm, let's see.  How do I put it?  Janky.  Quaint.  This hotel had a high iron fence surrounding it with a gate at the parking lot.  It had a few things that needed to be fixed here and there, but it was just for the night so it would do.  After we dropped our stuff off in our room and headed out to eat, we passed a family walking to their room.  The woman seemed a bit perturbed, walking quickly by us, and then all of the sudden the man says, "What did you expect, Caroline, a five star hotel?!"  Oh my goodness.  We barely made it to the elevator without bursting out in laughter.

For dinner, we were really wanting Olive Garden (who wouldn't? carb load!) so I used a restaurant finding app on my phone to locate one.  7 miles later and a disconnected phone line, we realized that that Olive Garden didn't even exist anymore.  It was 8:30 pm by then so we decided to go to whatever was closest...IHOP.  Let's just say that they push their breakfast menu for a reason.

RACE DAY

Breakfast - we each had a Nutri-Grain bar and a few dips of peanut butter.  I would not recommend this pre-race breakfast to anyone.  It didn't last very long, which certainly wasn't helpful when we ran past the Wonder Bread factory at mile 12 (torture, right?).

Ready to Run!  Got my dollar gloves on, ready to pitch whenever my hands warmed up.

Kit and me @ 7 am...We wanted to make sure we weren't late (last race we barely made it, even though we left 2 hours early).  Turns out this race wasn't nearly as big as the last.  It was nice, however, to see the empty streets fill up with tons of racers!

After the race - 2 on my record now!

My time this race wasn't quite as good as my last one, but I was kind of expecting that because of the lack of training on my part.  However, I DID get a P.R. in a different way.  This race I ran the first 6 miles without stopping!  So you would think a faster time, right?  Ha. No.  Remember the "didn't train much" thing?  Well after those first 6 miles, I started walking for a minute, then began to run again.  I felt like someone had strapped boards to my legs so that I had to run straight-legged.  My body was tired faster so I ended up walking more than I would have liked at the end. 

And with that new P.R. comes wonderful soreness as well.   

Overall, it was a great experience for a wonderful cause.  I would do it again.  And again.

My next venture?  Hopefully this race.  Or maybe this one again.