The race

The big day finally came and went! It was exciting, challenging, hard, fun and nerve-wracking all at the same time. The morning started out pretty early.  I was up at 5 am and out the door by 5:30 am. Official race started at 7:30am but the officials asked everyone running to be parked by 6:30am. We got to park on the infield of the track! Pretty cool. These pictures are heading into the actual track area and the tunnel taking you down to the track and infield area (we also ran down this tunnel around mile 8).

Once inside and parked it was all butterflies from there on... did I train enough? Will I be able to even finish? Can I make my goal time (2 hr)?What if my back gives out half-way through? All kinds of stuff goes through your mind before the actual race begins.

Once the race started I felt good... it was fun to be in this swarm of people, just running. The course was great. This is my first half-marathon, but I think it will also definitely be my favorite race. We got to run all around the speedway... we started on the race track, then ventured out through the campgrounds, up into the grandstands, then around the top of the race track (what a view!), then finally back down through the tunnel into the track again to finish on the racetrack.

My official time was 2 hr and 5 mins. Just missed my goal by 5 mins... but I'm still pleased with my first ever race of this distance. I'm hoping to get faster and faster. I've learned some "do's" and "dont's" along the way. I guess you could say, I'm hooked.  Official results here.

 

I'm so thankful that my family came to support me.

It was so fun to see my kids and husband waiting for me at the finish line!