The Best Laid Plans

For anyone who doesn't know...I am a planner.  I like to have spreadsheets and calendars and schedules and more spreadsheets.  I did theatre for years and was no good at improv.  I even have a spreadsheet where I plan to update other spreadsheets.  But the good news is, I am not God...so even (or, perhaps, especially) when my plans go awry, God has got everything covered and I'm reminded that it really wasn't up to me in the first place.

Stuff Jared bought for the race...

Here's some things that did not go as planned for my first half marathon:

• My husband got sick the night before and couldn't run with me.
• The weather was drizzly and rainy.  (The meterologists did plan this, but I was counting on pretty sunshine.)
• The race really started at 7:30.  I thought it was at 7 and went to the bathroom and had my gel and warmed up and then got to stand around in the rain for 30+ minutes.

Making breakfast pre-race





• I ran into some friends, including my boss' boss and one of my old students.  (Well, not literally ran into them.  Although I wouldn't put it past me.)
• I left my time chip with my husband, so he had to time me with his iPhone.

On our way...

• The first 2 miles were the worst.  I did mile 1 in 11 minutes and was despairing of coming even close to my time.
• I really enjoyed running the hills. 

• Singing the victory song from Finding Nemo makes me run better.

Coming around to the final curve...

And the thing I least expected when planning for this race?

I finished in 2:04:15.  More than 10 minutes faster than my goal time.





They gave me a cool medal which you can't see cause I didn't turn it the right way for the photo.  Oh, well.

Came home and recovered:

I ate pizza, too.

Should have stretched longer...feel like an old lady today.

And the cool shirt!

All in all, a pretty darn awesome experience.  Thanks to Leslie for her tips on running your first half, my friends and family for all the encouragement, and my sweet husband Jared for getting me motivated in the first place, and encouraging me to run alone when he couldn't join me.  Next one we'll do together, Babe!