Carmel, IN Half Marathon Weekend

I completed my 4th half marathon Saturday. My running group and I left Friday morning and drove the 6 hours there for packet pickup.

 We all had matching running shirts

My girls and I about to head out

It was a great drive there

We arrived in Carmel late Friday afternoon and went to pick up our shirts and race bib

This is our group on Saturday morning the day of the race at the hotel

The weather was COLD and had an overcast most of the race. It rained really hard the day before and flooded most of the flat course so the race director had to reroute the course to A LOT of HILLS. 

The start of the race was great. I was doing pretty good and about mile 5 my ankle turned and I fell. I fell hard into the concrete and scrapped my leg and both my palms. I got right back up, but that fall pretty much messed up my mo jo.

 

My original goal was to finish in 2:20. My personal best is 2:24 so I wanted to PR by 4 minutes. Well with the added hills and the fall early on I pretty much just took it easy and completed the race in 2:26. 

After I finished I headed over to the medical tent to get my hands cleaned and bandaged up

At the finish line

By far my nicest medal

We had several people run their first full marathon at 26.2 miles. CRAZY!! Lauren is one of those people. She is amazing to have completed those 26.2 miles with an injury. Our motto is "no runner left behind". And after 5 and half hours she completed her first full marathon injury and all with all 50 of us there cheering her on. This was my best moment of the weekend hands down.

I never thought I would become a runner. This time last year I was not a runner and would have never dreamed I would already have 4 half marathons under my belt. Running has done so much for me and I have meet some AMAZING people that are so positive and supportive. Maybe that is what keeps me going or maybe the high I get when I cross that finish line and they put a medal around my neck. I don't know what it is, but I sure do love it. 

I am so looking forward to next Saturday. A team of 5 including myself are running a relay race. It's 53 miles divided up by 5 people. This will be my first experience running as a relay team and I am really looking forward to it and the memories well make. 

Happy Thursday!!