half marathon recap

My fourth half marathon was so much fun. It was the first race that I've ran "with" other people I knew. Leanne (my sister), Rachel (my cousin) and myself kind of virtually trained together via early morning text messages and encouraging each other with our long distance runs. It was always a kick in the butt when Rach would text me at 6:00 am and tell me her plans to run her long run, it somehow always got me out the door just knowing she was running at the same time. I highly recommend a virtual running buddy!

our bibs!

our projected times. Lee beat hers by 5minutes!!
I'm still working on mine;)

we collected all of our stamps.
Still waiting to hear on a prize;)

chipper and ready to go at a 8:45 am start time

My time? Long story. My time was clocked at 1:54, but when I crossed the finish line said 1:49 so I'm not sure what happened there. It's kind of a let-down, but I still ran a half and I still finished and I'm proud of that. It certainly was no PR, in fact it was my slowest half yet. I felt comfortable with the distance, but my legs had no speed. They felt like tree trunks... white tree trunks:)

this picture kind of sums up my pain (and bad form. oops)
This is on way to the finish line.

trying to give the photographer jazz hands
this was going into the park ~half way through the race

What a great race. The city gets so involved in the marathon and there are spectators everywhere along the course. This year the course was changed a little and definitely for the better. For some reason I just loved this course. Martitime music was playing at 2 different locations and if that doesn't get you moving, then...I dunno what will. Little kids were passing out jelly beans, gummy bears and orange slices. Something that stuck out to me this year was all the witty signs such as "dont poop your pants", "toenails are for sissies", "you, yeah you, run faster", "if you can read this you are running too slow".  Fun, right?

Kenny's poster he made for us

I had a really fun surprise around kilometer 10. My parents were on the sidewalk and I hadn't seen them since October! My brother and sister in law and Kenny were there also. It really makes a difference to see people you know cheering you on.

I see my parents!

After the race: Kenny and I have a picture like this from a race in the fall

After the run we all went out to a local retro-modern diner for Brunch and since my Leanne knows the manager we got free dessert. It's nice to have a pretty sister with connections;)

So that's a general recap of the half from my perspective. It was a fun race and I hope to do it again next year!

Questions:
Have you ever gotten slower at runs? 
Do you have a running buddy? 
What's the most witty race sign you've seen?