Nike Women's Half Marathon Recap!

This was supposed to be posted earlier today but for some reason Blogger ate the post so I got to write it again!

The Race in Numbers:

6:30AM start time

30,000 runners

13.61 miles... how is that considered a half marathon?  I think Nike forgot how to count!

3,481,239 hills (okay, slight exaggeration)

3 potty breaks

4 mini walk breaks down the hills

45 seconds of tears shed at the finish line

4 shot blox consumed during the race

2 free chocolate bars grabbed at the chocolate mile (they were a great post-race snack!)

My time?  1 hour slower than I my fastest half.  Do I care?  Not one tiny bit.

The Race in Pictures:

Moonlit Start!

Here we go!

Ready to run!

Up another hill!

True Story.

Finish Line in Sight!

Finished the race!

Got the Tiffany's Necklace!  My firefighter is a million times better looking though...

The box!

10th Anniversary Race!

Love it

The race was just as fun as I remember.  A beautiful course, a great cause (Leukemia & Lymphoma- something very dear to me as my Grandpa died from Leukemia when I was 11), great goodie bag and tech shirt, and a TIFFANY'S necklace at the finish line. The only thing I will say about the race is that there were almost 10,000 more people running it this year which = way too crowded.  The finish line was chaotic, although I think that was because they had to cut the finish line area since it was partially on government land (and is a no-go because of the shut-down).  Hopefully next year the finish line will be as amazing as past years because this year was pretty anticlimactic!  That's okay though!

So how was running a half marathon at ~20 weeks pregnant?  Well... not like running a half marathon when I'm not pregnant, that's for sure!  Unfortunately, my body decided to go into freak out mode in the last week and the sacro-iliac joint (SI) pain that I've been having went from slightly annoying to constant. Luckily during the race I was able to pull through and I had more energy than I've ever had in a race (probably because I was running at snail speed!).  I had no issues whatsoever with baby and I'm so proud of baby boy accomplishing his first race! :)

After the race, we went to lunch near our hotel and I enjoyed an amazing chicken salad.  The best part however, was this:

Cheesecake Factory, you never let me down.

As much as I love this race, I think I might try to venture out next year and try a new race!  Any recommendations for fall races??