Oxford Half Marathon

Early this morning, Jimmy, Olivia, Julie, and I traveled to Oxford to participate in the Run for Hope Half Marathon. The temperature was 28 degrees when we began the race! However, by the end of the race I was pretty warm. Olivia dropped her headband after about 4 miles and a man running behind me saw it and said, "That's a Johnson's headband!" I spotted it too and carried it in my pocket for the remainder of the race. Even though I did warm up, I did not remove my headband or gloves.

The race course was brutal! The hills were frequent and extremely long. One steep downhill was almost as bad as all of the uphills. It was difficult to run (slowly jog) down that hill! As the finish line approached, we had to climb one last, tough hill. I haven't downloaded my watch onto the computer to see, but I think that I walked at least twice going up that last hill. Even though there was less than half a mile left. This race wore me out! Running all of those miles on my treadmill was not adequate preparation for the hills of Oxford! I am still pleased with my time---2 hours, 6 minutes. Julie ran with Jimmy, and Julie did her personal best for a half-marathon--1 hour, 51 minutes. Olivia chose to run alone, setting her own pace, and she finished in 2 hours. I am so proud of all of them!

In spite of the tough course, I thoroughly enjoyed this race. I ran with my friend Dorothy, and we just had the best time. We talked non-stop the entire race. The time actually went by quickly, it was just really tough to keep running those last couple of miles. When we finished, we enjoyed delicious post race refreshments, and I won a door prize!

Olivia and Julie before the race

Fellow Spartans who also ran:

Forrest (the half), Josh (5K), Olivia, and Julie

Dorothy and I approaching the finish line--Dorothy did not get hot! She wore one short sleeved shirt; I wore three long sleeved shirts!

Me, trying to catch my breath after finishing

Dorothy, my running partner

Julie and Olivia after the race

Jimmy and I resting after the race

The race volunteers spent about an hour handing out door prizes. Prizes were awarded by race number. I kept looking down at my number to make sure I would recognize it if it were called out. With 500 people inside the conference center, it was hard to hear the numbers when called. Right at the end of door prize distribution, I heard my number! I had not even seen what they were giving out.....so I was expecting a gift certificate to a local restaurant, maybe a gift basket from a cute store, or a cooler or some type of race bag.

Imagine my surprise when they told me what I had won!

Two airline tickets to anywhere in the U.S.!!!

What a door prize!