Running the Georgia ING half marathon

For some reason, I have always wanted to run. When I moved to Georgia, I met a neighbor who was getting into running, so we started to do it together. She was with me when I ran my first mile-- thanks Whitney:) I knew that to keep me going I would have to make a goal, so I decided to sign up for the big Atlanta half marathon. I put the training schedule up on my fridge and kept running. Because the winter was so cold and rainy here, I had to do most of my training on the treadmill. None of my friends would sign up with me, so I got used to running with my music.
The morning of (this picture is at like 5:30 in the morning) my faithful husband got up with me to ride the MARTA--the Atlanta railway-- and to support me during my race. Because there were 18,000 participants, the railway was crowded and I was asking myself why I was doing this again because I absolutely hate crowds. Even more unpleasurable was the fact that although I got a nice seat on the MARTA, the guy standing in front of me did not, and let's just say that I did not appreciate how short his shorts were. People need to use discretion when choosing running shorts, or at least have friends to tell them what is inappropriate. Anyway, I spent most of my time diverting my eyes.

Then of course, because I am female and me, when I got there I had to use the restroom, which is the port-a-john, I guess fancier that the original port-a-potty. So after waiting in a long line, I used the bathroom. By the time I was done, the race had started, but because there were so many people it didn't matter that I was late. Thousands still needed to cross the staring line. Wonderful Bob was waiting for me at the 2 mile mark to give me a high 5 and then headed off to the 10 mile mark to see me again. When I met up with him then, he ran alongside me for a moment to encourage me (I picked a good one).

This is a picture of me at the end--how tired do I look! I got to see some pictures taken of me by the race photographers and they are so funny. There is one where I look like I am sniffling and the one where I am crossing the line, I remember trying to smile but it looks more like a grimace. I was very happy with my time and loved that when Bob and I went to get burgers and fries and I didn't even care about how much I ate. The race had massage therapists in training that we could sign up to get a ten minute massage, so of course I was all over that. It was a great day and I am a huge proponent now that anyone can be a runner if I can.