My first 13.1 - recap

Saturday night before the race I told everyone in my house (mom, her hubby, the kids, and my own hubby) that I was going to bed by 9 pm. I needed to be completely rested to get up at 5am on Sunday morning. I went to bed around 10pm and think I pretty much fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Before bed I laid everything for Sunday morning out so it would be ready to go.
And because I am such an awesome blogger and photographer I made sure the picture was perfect. *insert sarcasm* Seriously, why didn't I do like all the cool runner bloggy chics and lay my race outfit out all cute like with my bib?? I'm lame, I guess. But at least I did lay everything out the night before, right!?

Hubby and I set both alarms for Sunday morning around 5am. He's so cool that he set his alarm to "I Run to You" by Lady A. Awwwwww. How sweet is that? Just perfect for the morning of my first half marathon that I would be running with my one true love. ;)

We were up, dressed and out the door by 6am. But not before I snapped these pics....



Hubby in his race day tee. He was going for loud and he was proud! He also made a pbj for breakfast/pre run fuel. Yum! I had a slice and a half of pb toast! It's the perfect run fuel for me. Someone should come up with a portable pb toast option for runners.. or a portable toaster! ha I kid.



Me before leaving the house! I was still excited at this point. And I know most of you want to know about my totally awesome shirt! I'm getting there. I got the arm sleeves at the expo and loved them. They were just some basic Asics that I picked up randomly for less than $10. I figured I could wear them with a tee for the race and not have to worry about wearing a long sleeve top that I would have to deal with shedding later when I warmed up. Instead I was able to push the sleeves down once I felt warm enough. Perfect!

As for the shirt...

I entered a giveaway on ShutUpandRun and was totally shocked when I found out I had one my choice of color, style and size in a bamboo top from TWIST

I had already been scoping out the site just in case, but I never win a thing so it didn't matter. Then I go the email and was stoked! And imagine my surprise when my tee showed up the day before my first half marathon!!!! It was fate. I think they sent a bit of magic in that tee and it gave me the power for a great run.

We left the house promptly at 6am. We had to make one little stop at the store before heading over to Knoxville and I still couldn't believe I was not nervous. Once we were parked at the race venue I fiddled with my iPod to make sure I had it ready to go and discovered that the music could be heard coming from both the internal speaker and my earbuds. I was then frustrated to the max but decided I had bigger things to deal with (like running 13.1 miles) than whether someone around me could hear my music. We walked on over to where the race was to start and as we were crossing the Clinch Ave bridge the tears began to fall....