A Great Half-Marathon!

Early this morning Jimmy and I traveled to Florence for the first annual Life Without Limits Half Marathon (raising money for cerebral palsy). This was our "date". Well, we had a super day! The weather was perfect, a little cool at the beginning, but by the end of the run we were hot!. This was my 3rd half marathon, and I had set a personal goal of beating my previous half marathon times, which were 2 hours, 11 minutes (St. Jude) and 2 hours, 15 minutes (the Tupelo Half, which was actually 14.2 miles, 1.1 miles longer than an official half-marathon--13.1 miles).

I did it! 2 hours, 1 minute, 12 seconds!!

Jimmy ran with me the whole way, and while he let me set the pace, I was encouraged to push myself. I enjoyed the run so much! It really was fun running with my handsome husband and enjoying uninterrupted conversation. However, the last 1.5 miles were tough. I was so ready for the race to be over! Jimmy was very encouraging while I whined the last mile.

As soon as we crossed the finish line, Jimmy was off again! He ran the course (with a few detours since they were shutting down the course) a second time for a total of 26.2 miles--a full marathon. He needed a long run today as part of his training for the full St. Jude marathon in December. He ran the second half faster than we did the first half for a grand total of 26.2 miles in 3 hours, 57 minutes! Wow!

While Jimmy ran, I ate my delicious boxed lunch provided by the race in the company of some Tupelo friends, John and Leigh. Then I changed into dry clothes, played on my phone and then listened to the awards. I was shocked out of my shoes when I was announced as 3rd place in my age group! I happily went on stage to receive my trophy! Since our family photographer was still running, I have no pictures! But Jimmy's running coach was there and he did take one picture of me!

When Jimmy finished and changed we went to Target! and then we came home.

A great half marathon!
A great day!