3M Half Marathon Race Recap

Once upon a time in a land far far away (ok, back in June), Tricia (Endurance Isn't Only Physical) and I decided we would run the Austin 3M Half Marathon together.  It was supposed to be flat and fast, and we had discussed with Coach Adam (yes, he coaches both of us... pity him) about pushing each other to a 2-hr half marathon at that race.  But then life happened... Tricia's went and injured herself, and I, of course, signed up for this itty bitty race for the very next weekend.  Of course, 13.1 was still a suitable taper run for 50, but the thought of PR'ing it had completely vanished - priorities!

So this past Saturday, I headed down to Austin to Tricia's place.  We almost immediately headed out for the "expo".  The expo was super small, but very efficient.  Well, of course it was efficient, Teal & Beth were there volunteering and got us our packets, shirts, and bibs.

Love the amount of 3M loot.  Really did NOT like the shirt, though... you can probably guess why.  Not something I plan to wear around town as it could be easily misinterpreted.

We also got the chance to have a quick "Tweet-up" at packet pick-up.

@melissalicia512 , @triciarunning , me @racingitoff , and @cisforcourtney

(Thanks Courtney for the photo!!!)

Not only did we tweet-up, but Courtney made some divine s'mores cupcakes... and SHARED!

After the brief expo visit, we headed back to Tricia's for a relaxed evening of beer, pizza, and chick flicks.

This is how you prep for a race that you plan to run for FUN.

After a short night of sleep (race start was 6:45am), it was go time.  And Texas weather bowed to our wishes and it was chilly just like we hoped.  Brrrrrrrr...

Did I mention that we didn't really fill our handhelds the conventional way...

For the record, shaking up a beer while you run is not recommended.  It gets very foamy, and makes you feel very bloated.  Anyhow, with Tricia's injury, we knew the second half of the race might be a bit more relaxed.  We ran the first 7, and then started instituting walk breaks.  This is where it was kind of nice to relax for a minute, take a sip of carbs, and just generally chit-chat and enjoy the day.  There was still way more running that walking, and I was super proud of Tricia for toughing it out despite being only trained up to 6 miles post-injury.

And ultimately, we finished smiling...