The 1/2

I finally have a minute to post some pictures from last month's half marathon. It feels like a great accomplishment just to complete it, but now I really want to improve on my time for the next one next month. I finished the silver strand half marathon in just over 2 hours and thirty minutes - about 11 minute miles. I know I can do much better, but I was nervous about runnng out of energy toward the end, so I started off a lot slower than I normally do, and then just tried to keep the same pace the whole way. I didn't want to speed up at the end, because in my very first race, a 10 K, I started practically sprinting when I thought I was near the end. A race staff person told us we had just passed the 6 mile mark, so we thought we were only a tenth or two away from the finish. Well, we had actually just completed the fifth mile, and were starting the 6th mile. So, I just about killed myself and got really sick and dehydrated. I really didn't want that to happen, so I didn't even speed up until I could actually see the finish line this time.

My Mom and the kids and Neil were all there cheering for me. It felt amazing. Here are a few pictures. We had the best time!