All Photos taken by my dad! Thanks DAD!Me around mile 7 Troy and Annie after Troy took a bike ride on the Steamboat mountain Me getting my award for first in my age group Laura at the finish looking awesome My back end at mile 7 Annie looking like Yoda My finish sprint (check out the time clock) Me watching myself get passed at mile 12 Mom and I on Independence Pass today

Ahhh, another Half Marathon done! Every time I finish a half marathon I swear it’s my last, then I find myself signing up for another one! My parents flew into town on Thursday and we headed up to Steamboat on Friday. Laura had reserved us these awesome condos at the Torian Plum, so we were right on the mountain and since she scored the top floor for us we had this awesome view! It was great to watch the sun set from the balcony.

Saturday the husbands went mountain biking and the rest of us tinkered around town. I really enjoyed hanging with my parents, and it was great to know that Troy was out having an epic all day adventure on his bike.

Sunday came and Laura and I met at 6am to head to the bus. They bus you out to the start line since both the marathon and the 1/2 marathon are one way. I downed some orange juice and yummy bread from Sopp and Truscut. It was a chilly morning and Laura and I were not looking forward to parting with our jackets. Soon enough, the gun was off and we warmed up. I positioned myself at the front of the line and I went out hard. Probably too hard...okay definitely too hard. But I felt so good. It was cool in the shade and so beautiful out so I went for it. It worked for about the first 7 miles. After I saw my parents at mile 7, I was the 4th woman in the race, and I was starting to not feel too hot. So I slowed down a bit, struggled with some hills and some hydration. I saw that my mom had written my name in chalk on the road and that perked me up. Apparently she did it 3 times, but I only say one of the signs. I was out of it! I got passed at mile 9. I tried for about a mile to say with her, but no dice. At about mile 10 I started to feel more in the game and picked it up. But I didn’t have tons left and I mile 12 I got passed again. Check out the AWESOME picture of this happening! So I was the 6th woman at this point. As we ran down the finish stretch the crowd was great. My support crew drove down the road with my dad hanging out the sun roof taking pictures. At the very finish the guy behind me started yelling at me to go-go-go-faster-faster-faster. I sprinted AS HARD AS I COULD. I can’t even describe it. And then it was over. I stopped my watch and looked down. WOW, at least a 5 minute personal record! And 6th woman! I was overjoyed that my body fought that hard for me. It wasn’t easy and I learned some lessons but I am really proud of what I did.

After assessing my blisters (not pretty) and recovering a bit we all headed back down the race course to watch Laura finish. She looked great. SOOOO HAPPY! It was awesome to see her groovin’ along. I haven’t seen her running since a winter snowshoe race and I was just digging her form and her grace and ease! It was awesome. Great job Laura!!

Okay, here are the details: Final Time: 1:33:15 6th overall woman 1st in 25-29 female age group 42nd overall finisher (of 967)

Mile 1: 6:39 Mile 2: 6:54 Mile 3: 6:42 Mile 4: 6:24 Mile 5: 6:56 Mile 6: 7:07 Mile 7: 7:02 Mile 8: 7:35 Mile 9: 7:53 Mile 10: 7:28 Mile 11: 6:52 Mile 12: 7:28 Mile 13: 7:36 Last Little Bit: 0:30