1/2 Marathon & A Tennessee Waltz

Saturday was the BIG DAY! It was the Country Music Marathon and 1/2 Marathon! I couldn't hardly sleep Friday night. My nerves and excitement were to thank for that. I woke up at 5:15am. We left the house about an hour later. Brent dropped me off close to the start and then he and Isla headed to a coffee shop that was on the course at around mile 7. Rowen stayed with my parents Friday night. I have only run this 1/2 marathon before so I have no others to compare this one to but the amount of runners was insane. I think I heard someone say there were more than 30,000 participants! I met my 2 sister in laws and one of my brother in laws in corral 25. We got to chat for about an hour before we even reached the starting line!! Yep, the first group of people started at 7am and we crossed the starting line around 7:45-7:50am. I texted Brent when we were about to start running and he later told me right after I texted him, he got an alert on his phone saying that the winner was close to finishing..haha! 

{Me-April-Kelli}

I decided that I would stick with Kelli for as long as I could! I felt great up until mile 8 but my hips started tightening up as I was approaching mile 9. I had to slow down around mile 8 and lost Kelli at that point.

{Brent took these around mile 7-7 1/2}

 I pushed through the tightness but it was just getting worse and then calf cramps entered. I started walking really fast at mile 10 and ran/walked mile 10-12. I finished strong by running mile 13! I predicted that I would finish in about 3 hours and finished at exactly 3 hours. 

{Easley's, Kegley's, and Moseley's all representing!}

Hey, we all finished and I consider that a huge accomplishment! If I run it next year, I will NOT be 4 months post having a baby and will train more than just 6 weeks! It was fun(minus the tightness/cramping)and the day was just gorgeous. 

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So most people, including myself would have taken the rest of the day to recovery, lounge around, try not to exert any more energy than they had to...that wasn't the case for me. I rested for about an hour and then had to get ready for our black tie event, A Tennessee Waltz. It's a fundraiser for the state museum and is quite a swanky affair. My legs were screaming at me the whole time that I was getting ready and I literally walked around the house at turtle speed saying "ohhhh ohhhh ouch" a lot!! I rallied it up though and got fancy along with my handsome husband and off we went. 

We went to a pre Waltz party at Brent's work downtown and then headed over to the Waltz after that. I didn't take any pictures at the Waltz! I always take pictures at things we go to and I tried to think back to why I didn't pull out my phone to take a pic once and then it hit me...I was thinking pretty much the whole night that my legs were going to detach from my body and I pretty much focused the whole time on how much my body hurt!! Never again will I run in a half marathon before a big night!! It was an exceptionally nice evening and we had a good time.