Half Marathon

For the past four months, I have been training with my friend Tawny for our first half marathon. Well, it was this past Sunday in Austin and we did it!!! We finished in about 2 hours and 35 minutes, which is a little over an 11.5 minute per mile pace. What we weren't prepared for was the hills!!! We had been warned that this was a hilly course, but you just don't really get it until you are running 13.1 miles up and down hills. On top of that, Tawny had what equated to a stress fracture in her foot and had been in a boot the week before. She really wanted to run because she had trained so hard, but she had to run on her tippy toes the whole way to keep the pressure off of it. We made it, though! We were so happy to have accomplished this after all of the practicing we had done. Here are some pictures from the race weekend:


The night before we left for Austin we grilled out to kick off the weekend. This is Channing and Tanner. Channing had been pushing Tanner around in the play stroller. They play so well together, and Tanner gets so excited when the get to see each other.


Tawny with the kids
Tawny and Paxton at the expo. Channing's always posing. What a cutie!
Us at the expo the day before the race.
Bath time at the hotel. This was Tanner's first hotel stay. That night around midnight we heard a thud and a loud cry. Tanner had fallen off the bed!!! She and Clinton were asleep in one bed because I was trying to get as much sleep as possible. I moved to their bed after that, though. Scary!!
Our pre-race carb-loaded meal!
Pizza and pasta!
This was me at 4:45am the day of the race. I was ready to go!
Tanner was bright-eyed and bushy tailed too!
My game face. I'm so fierce, I know....
This was near the starting line around 6:30am. We were nervous! I was a lot more nervous than Tawny, though. I think she was just nervous about how her foot would hold up.
There were approximately 14,000 runners between the marathon and half marathon.
This was mile 6. I was still feeling great at this point and felt like I could run forever. I would have told you differently, though, around mile 9! Tawny's foot was hurting her pretty badly at this point. She was such a trooper!
Tanner and G-Paw waiting at the hotel near the finish line for us to finish.
Jaxson was tired of waiting!
I love this picture. That is the capital in the background.
Tawny about to cross the finish line.
Me about to cross the finish line.

After we crossed the finish line


Sofi came to see me! I was so excited!

I wasn't the only one who was exhausted!


Post-race meal. We were so hungry!
Tanner was giving her G-Paw "nose kisses" on the playground outside of the restaurant

Paxton and Jaxson
Haley, Jason, and Sofia