London's Run

The morning started out early! Kourtney, Erryn & Yvette all came to our house so we could drive out together. It was fun to talk about how nervous we were and how each of us dealt with it. It really kills me that I get so nervous...I know that I am only racing against myself...so why do I worry? I was a little scatterbrained before we left, but we were able to pull it all together and we left home about 6:40am to get out to Queen Creek in time to get our packets and stretch & warm up. Well, it was a little hard to warm up because it was COLD. Not as cold as last year, but still nippy!

Of course we had to make the neccesary potty stop
before getting ready for our race.
We ended up going back to the car to warm up before the race started.

Dave always comes in much faster than me, so he is the designated camera guy! He always gets me coming down the stretch and crossing the finish line. Maybe someday we will be able to work something out so he can get his picture taken too!


I had set 3 goals for myself for fininshing times. My last 1/2 marathon I ran 10 minute miles, so I wanted to improve on that time. I wanted to shoot for 9 minute 15 second miles...that was my pie in the sky goal. My medium range goal was 9 minute 30 second miles and I made it! I ended up averaging 9 minute 28 second miles over the course of 13.1 miles coming in at 2 hours 4 minutes and 9 seconds (according to my watch...the offical time was 18 second, but it took a bit to cross the starting line). I was happy that I did pretty well! I shaved about 7 minutes off of my last 1/2 marathon time...yeah!

This is a picture of Dave with our friend Scott. They have carpooled together since 2001. There was a part of the race that we had to kind of double back on the route and so I watched for Dave and was able to see him. Scott was right behind him and I saw him putting his finger to his mouth doing the universal "sh" sign. He didn't want Dave to know that he was following him! It was funny! So now the relationship might move to the next level, not just carpooling buddies but running buddies too!


I got to see Lauie (she cheered me onto the finish line...THANKS LAURIE!). She ran the 10k with several of her kids. Her husband ran the 1/2 marathon with us and I saw him on the way too. It is so fun to see people you know and cheer each other on!


Most of us ended up getting a free massage at the end of the race and I think that really helped me not be quite so sore today.

Overall it was a great day and it was fun to share with friends!

Here is our group as we got ready to go home. l to r: Yvette, Erryn, Me, Dave & Kourtney.