TriSlide, my new favorite product!

My new favorite product.  I have had an issue with running, I get chaffing at the edge of my short sleeves.  This happens whether or not I wear sleeves or tank tops.  Must be my running style. I Body Glide up my arms but still get the chaffing.  Last October when I ran a half marathon I chaffed really badly.  I was fed up. I began looking for a body glide alternative that was liquid/lotion like.  I ended up finding this aerosol TriSlide brand at Sports Basement.  OMG, I'm in heaven!  Day 1 I sprayed on the TriSlide, headed out for a 10 mile run.  No chaffing!!  Warning...do not spray this stuff near anything, it will make it slick.  The floor of my bathroom was slippery for days!  Now I only spray this on me outside.
I have run two half marathons and several double digit runs in heat and no chaffing.  I can wear my tank tops with no issues.  Hooray.
My next race is an Olympic Distance Triathlon so I will see how this fares in triathlons.

Resolutions 2012 Completed

The Resolutions: 
January 2012
1) Cook a new recipe once a month. (And post them here if I like it.)
2) Run 500 miles. I have already signed up for 2 half marathons (One in April and one in May)
3) Lose the 7-8 lbs I'm still carrying of baby weight.
4) Try new classes. Look for groupons or deals to experiment with different fitness classes in my area. I've already started a boot camp class that I bought on groupon.
5) Read 50 books. (I'm on book two right now.)
6) Host several dinners for my friends, especially the ones I haven't seen in ages.

Resolutions revisted.

1) I know I tried at least 12 new recipes if not more, it came in bursts so it wasn't monthly.

2) I ran 612.21 miles this year so I surpassed my goal by far.

3) I lost all the baby weight, woo-hoo!

4) I tried bootcamp, and I signed up to teach BOSU so kinda half completed this goal in my opinion.

5) I totally failed on this resolution.  I read 36 books.  I tried lowering my goal to 40 books but couldn't even reach that.  I guess if I didn't run the extra 1,000 minutes I could have used that time to make my reading goal but maybe working out was a better choice?

6) Host several dinners, I can name perhaps a handful of dinners I hosted for people I haven't seen in a while, but several with friends I see often.

Road Runner Sports Thursday Adventure Run

I'm loving my local Road Runner Sports Thursday Adventure Runs.  They are so much fun!  I can't believe I've waited so long to get into them.
How it goes:
1. Register online beforehand (then you get a free drink ticket).
2. Check in between 5:30-6:30pm, get your drink ticket, take a look at the cool gizmo's you can test out during your run.  (ie. CEP compression socks, Asic's shoes, Amphipod earbuds, Garmin watches etc.)  Just give them a credit card or license as a deposit and you're good to go with borrowing the item.  Also as you are talking with the vendors, collect some raffle tickets before the run even starts.
3. 6:30pm, up goes a big map with the 10 or so spots you can collect raffle tickets.  Take a picture of it, write it down, whatever it takes to know where to go.  Also if you preregistered, they will email you the map to your smartphone.
4. Take off running!  The run is around 6 miles, more or less.  The more stops you hit the more raffle tickets you collect.  If you purchase and wear the Adventure run shirt you get double the tickets.  Most stops you just collect the tickets and jet, others you may have to do an activity.  At Crunch we had to do squats, jumping jacks and lunges.  One time we had to hula hoop at the park.  You can hit as many or as little stops, but you have only 1 hour.
5. 7:30pm, come back to the store, drop off your raffle tickets, grab your free beer and sit down and wait for the raffle.  I am not as organized as others, but the pro's come back and tape their raffle tickets to cardboard or clipboards to keep them together and easy to view when numbers are being called.  Prizes usually range from gift cards to local stores, items that had booths that night, boxes of power bars, month long gym membership, shoes, etc.  Great stuff!
6. Go to the after party.  I haven't attended one yet because usually I have to relieve the babysitter or help my hubby get the kids to bed.  But I hear it's fun and they give more prizes there.
If there is an Adventure run near you, check it out.  It's super fun, a way to get a workout and it's free!

2011 Year in Review

This year was chaotic.
January-March was pretty normal. Feb we did a trip to Tahoe.
March started interviewing contractors to add on to our house. Found out baby #3 is a girl.
April-Girl's weekend away to Napa. Submitted paperwork to the city for permits.
May- Ran a 5k at 28.5 weeks pregnant
June-Ran a 5k at 30.5 weeks pregnant and our house addition starts (end of the month)
July- E's 2nd birthday and his choking incident. Start maternity leave.
August- Baby Girl named A is born the day before my birthday. :) Also the wall between our kitchen and new addition is torn down a few days after we come home from the hospital. Talk about a mess in our crowded house! And M starts kindergarten!
September- E's back in the ER for stitches on his forehead. (Accident prone?)
October- By the end of the month the addition is done. We get to move in.
November- M turns 5 years old. Our house is finally complete. (Old bathroom and bedroom remodeled.) We host Thanksgiving this year in our bigger home.
December-Hubby's birthday and Christmas. As well as every weekend M has birthday parties to attend.

We survived through so much this year. It was rough at times. Especially during the remodel. The house was a disaster, dusty, crowded, loud etc and all the while with a newborn. Kindergarten was a transition for the whole family. We have now adjusted to being a family of 5, we have space in our house and we've established a good routine that works for us. I'm finally able to relax in the evenings though sometimes that means crashing early.

Though I wasn't able to reach my goals for 2011, I'm sure I'll more than make up for them in 2012. ;)

Running talley: 217.42 miles. Very short of my 300 mile goal.

Book talley: 37 books out of my 50 book goal.

Running Talley 2011

As of yesterday I've beat my running mileage from pregnancy #2. I have run 178.82 miles this pregnancy and I have just over 8 weeks to go. This is a mile over my mileage from pregnancy #2.

My yearly mileage is up to 130.89.

So far I feel allright. I'm very slow running and I don't know how long I can keep it up. I may have to drop my runs to 2 miles and under but I'll keep going as long as I can.

Another 5k, 30.5 weeks pregnant

I ran another 5k this last weekend. It was one I signed up for back in early December when I had *just* found out I was pregnant. My friends were signing up for the half marathon and because I didn't want them to find out just yet that I was pregnant I said I signed up for the race too. Note that I said race, not half marathon. In talking about this race, a coworker of mine decided this would be her first half marathon she'd run. I also wasn't announcing my pregnancy at work so I just forewarned her about training schedules and what not to make sure she could fully commit to running it. Fast forward 5 months later and it was race day.

The weather predicted pouring rains, in June?! But luckily it turned out to be a cloudy, muggy morning but dry! (Nice compared to the torrential downpour the day before.) My coworker was ready for her half and my 2 other friends decided to run the 5k with me even with my warningly low pace.
The race was a little disorganized and I wished they had water at the start because I was thirsty! The half started first at 8am and I was able to see my coworker off. Thirty minutes later was the 5k. I guess because of the high number of 5kers they did staggered starts. We were in the third "wave". The race was nice, fairly flat, views of the bay not so bad. The race was longer than 5k according to my GPS. 0.14 miles longer in fact. But I finished fine, ran the whole way with no pain.
The end was another pain in the ass. No signs on any of the tents and lines were long to pick up the swag. So after waiting in the wrong line for 15 minutes we got into another line for the stuff we wanted. Seriously, how hard is it to write a sign?! Once everything was picked up, we watched more of the race, especially to see my coworker cross the finish line (with great time) and called it a day.
Overall, great time! Hopefully over time the race organizers will become more organized but I think this is only the 2nd year. Oh and results are totally confusing. And I believe inaccurate. There were two times listed. Not chip time and gun time, but Net time and Official time. Their description of what those meant.

Net Time is the time a person actually crossed the start line minus their finish.

Official Time is based on USATF rules. Official time is the gun time minus the finish time. This would be your official time for qualifying for a USATF race.

I feel net time is more accurate to what your race time is. I mean if it took you 2 minutes from gun time to pass the start it doesn't make sense to add that to your race time.

5k at 28 weeks pregnant

A little over a week ago I ran a local 5k. I've been meaning to run this race but haven't gotten around to it in the 5 years I've lived in the town. I showed up Sunday morning and did race day registration. I was very impressed on how well the race was run. I was in and out of registration quickly. They even had D-Tag race chips! I didn't realize how laid back the race was and they allowed dogs and strollers. The website wasn't very explanatory or beneficial to use at all. The map they gave me was confusing so I figured I'd just follow the crowd. It wasn't a very big crowd but it was nice.

The race was great, families were running it, kids, etc. The course had it's hills, but I felt good and was able to keep up a pretty good pace. Must have been that race adrenaline. I finished with my kids and hubby cheering me on (surprise!) with a time of 35:15, 11:22 pace. :) I was very happy considering my running pace has been in the 12 min mile pace recently.
My friend ran the 10k and said it was great. They had a couple of water stops (one for the 5k) and water and snacks at the end. I'm totally excited about doing this race next year! I'm thinking 10k, double jogger and a single jogger. Gonna have to recruit hubby to run it with me.

Running Talley 2011

Miles run in 2011: 97.68

Miles run pregnancy #3: 145.61

I have 5 weeks till my 5k. I'm hoping I can run the whole thing. This pregnancy has made running so much more difficult.

2011 Running Talley

As of today: # miles ran this year is 72.61.

Miles ran for this pregnancy: 120.54

Why I Love Where I Live

There are runners out every single day. I see them driving my kids to preschool/daycare. I see them around my work, looking out from my desk, out on the trails etc. Rain or shine, I am never alone out there. I've learned to ease slowly out of driveways because a runner might be coming by. I see people running with dogs, other people, huge groups or jog strollers. I love the running community here. In fact the reason why we bought our house was we drove by at night to check out the neighborhood after dark and I saw someone running while it was pitch black out. I *knew* this was the place for me.

In fact, not too far from my house is this trail, I heart this trail. It has beautiful views, water stops and goes on for miles.

Plus, living in the bay area...there is the bonus of races all year long, different lengths, practically weekly. Being so close to all of this has been heavenly. I'm really lucky to have these amenities.

Books Read 2010

2010 Books:

1. The End (Series of Unfortunate Events #13) by Lemony Snicket
2. I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak
3. Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl
4. Toddlers Gone Wild! Rants from a Mommy Brain by Rebecca Eckler
5. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
6. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
7. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
8. Switchcraft by Mary Castillo
9. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
10. Girl with The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
11. The Gift by Cecelia Ahern
12. Restoring Grace by Katie Fforde
13. The Importance of Being Married by Gemma Townley
14. My Life in France by Julia Child
15. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
16. Made in the USA by Billie Letts
17. A Wild Affair by Gemma Townley
18. House Rules by Jodi Picoult
19. My Horizontal Live: A Collection of One Night Stands by Chelsea Handler
20. Through The Heart by Kate Morgenroth
21. As Nature Made Him: The boy who was raised as a girl by John Colapinto
22. What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandel by Zoe Heller
Bit of a lackluster ending.
23. What The Dead Know by Laura Lippman
24. Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
25. Naptime is the New Happy Hour: And other ways toddlers turn your life upside down by Stephanie Wilder-Taylor
26. Promises to Keep by Jane Green
27. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
28. The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

29. They Did it With Love by Kate Morgenroth

30. Animal Farm by George Orwell

31. This Little Mommy Stayed Home by Samantha Wilde

32. Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner
33. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffeneger
34. Maid to Match by Deanne Gist
35. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
36. The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer
37. UnCharted TerriTori by Tori Spelling
38. Honolulu by Alan Brennert

39. Size 12 is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

40. The Year of the Fog by Michelle Richmond

41. I Did (But I Wouldn't Again) by Cara Lockwood

42. Run Like a Mother: How to Get Moving and Not Lose Your Job, Family or Sanity by Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea I loved this book. I actually asked for it for Mother's Day but my wonderful hubby forgot to buy it. He added it to his Amazon cart but never actually ordered it. I finally bought it for myself and thoroughly enjoyed it. Some highlights of the book...comments throughout the chapters from different mothers, hearing stories of the authors runs and races, and most all the inspiration that was laid out throughout the book. I loved hearing other mothers fitting time in their busy lives to run. Another take home message for me, the Hills chapter. I don't know what it was about that chapter but it has inspired me to do hill work. So for the past two weeks I've gone out and put in a day of hill work. (In fact I did a hill run at lunch today.)

This past weekend I was luck to meet the authors of this book at the See Jane Run Store in San Francisco. It was a lovely night of wine, chocolate and reading. I was excited to meet Dimity and Sarah and I loved how comfortable I felt chatting with them. I'm looking forward to hanging out with them again the next time their in my area.

43. Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. This is the 6th book in the series. I've read them all and each are a light read and somewhat entertaining. There are times where you want to smack Becky (main character) across the head, but overall a fun read.

Currently Reading: Got You Back by Jane Fallon

I decided not to listen to Cold Mountain on cd. I started it and just couldn't get into the narrators voice. So I've skipped that one and am listening to "The Other Queen" by Philippa Gregory

Next Up: Mini-Shopoholic by Sophie Kinsella

The infamous sub-2 half marathon

It's no secret that that is my goal. Finishing in under 2 hours. I've been close...2:06, but I can't seem to get there. For today's half marathon I trained with a fast runner. I trained hard and I tried to do the best I could. But alas...I didn't even PR. :( I can blame it on a number of reasons but it really comes down to I just didn't have it in me. I wish I could have met up with my new running partner at the start, but I didn't find her. Not that running with her would have guaranteed a PR. She finished in 1:59, amazing! I'm so proud of her, and a tiny bit jealous. :)

But the main thing I need to understand is that not every race will be a PR for me. Since I started running...and I mean really running races, my situation has been a little different. I started running half marathons in 2005. I ran my first half then got pregnant with my first child. After her birth I ran 3 more half's. Each half got faster and faster. PR'd on my last race before I got pregnant with child number 2. Ran 6 halfs since he was born, and same thing...each run got faster and faster (should clarify that faster and faster means I did get slower than my pre-second child but got faster each race thereafter)...except for these last two. But two weeks ago it was just a "training" half so I didn't push myself the whole time. So my PR is still before second child, but I get sooo close. I'm not giving up, it may not be this year but I heard that runners peak in their mid-30's, so I have a handful of years to work on it.

Palo Alto Moonlight 10k

Last Friday I ran the Palo Alto Moonlight 10k with a coworker. It started at 8:15pm so it was definitely dark. The weather was awesome, kinda on the warm side. 70 degrees at 8pm. The run was a loop around the bay trail. Only 2 miles were on city streets so 4 miles were pitch black except for the full moon, glow sticks, flashlights and head lamps. It was beautiful seeing the east bay lights and the moon on the water, the smell of the bay was disgusting though. It was a fun race and fast crowd.

My only issues were, parking was annoying. There were signs pointing in two directions to park and the one I took was full. When I had to make 3 U-turns to get back they were removing that arrow. Thanks for the late notice.

There was no bag check (official) and they handed us our t-shirts when we got our bibs so we didn't have time to go back to the car to put them away. We put them in a reusable grocery bag and set them on a bench (the 'bag check' area).

Porta potty lines were LONG! That's why we didn't have enough time to get back to the car, we waited 10-15 min in line.

Water was a joke. At the end of the race they handed you the itty-bitty dixie cup for water. It was a shot of water, are you kidding me? Then they said keep your cup so you can reuse it. They had arrowhead jugs for people to fill up their dixie shot cup, so annoying. I had my two shots of water and then headed to my car for my bottle of water. You'd think they'd be able to hand everyone a bottle of water.

Other than that it was a good race, longer than the stated 6.2 miles. My Garmin and my coworkers Polar foot pod both registered the race as 6.35 miles. When that distance I was averaging 8:56 pace.

Ice Bath

I had never truely taken an ice bath (full on ice in the tub and everything) until today. Oh it was glorious!! I have been missing out. Today I ran a "practice" half but it was still a race. I finished in 2:09:43, could have PR'd but knew I didn't want to push myself too much. I wanted to heal my legs more quickly because I have a 10k on Friday and my "actual" half in 2 weeks. So I tried it out tonight. Maybe it's the quiet 10 min I get to read while my legs go numb, maybe it's the appeal of a bath that my kids won't want to jump into.

I miss my Garmin

It for sure is dead. I tried resetting it according to Garmin's website recommendation. I couldn't even get it to turn on on the charger. So I placed an order for another one. I decided to go for the Forerunner 305. I had the 205, but for $11 more I get a heart rate monitor option.
I considered the 310xt version which is supposed to be for triathletes, but I don't like the high cost as well as the fact that it doesn't really track mileage well in water. I figured I'd wait till a better version comes out. I was also bummed that the smaller watches like the 405 didn't have the mulit-sport option.
The funny thing is that I have a run tomorrow, Friday and this weekend. I am hoping my Garmin comes soon because I love tracking my mileage, seeing my pace etc. For my two short runs I'll run a known mileage on a familiar path. I just hope that I get it before this weekend for my 7 mile run.

Sans Music

Early May I started running with a couple of my coworkers. I didn't listen to music during my runs with them because I was encouraging them, giving motivation, etc. I then made it a habit to not bring my ipod with me. So going on 2 months of no music during my lunchtime runs. It's been liberating, my pace has been the same, if not faster. I usually don't run races with my ipod. In fact my first race I ran with music was this last April during the Artichoke half, but that was weird circumstances and I NEEDED the music to even be out there running. Most of my races I have someone running with me so it's conversation getting me going. But now that I've been doing 3-4 mile runs w/o music, who knows, maybe my long runs will be in quiet.

Bike Speaker/Jog Stroller Speaker

During my training for my bike century ride, I wished several times on those long 5-8 hour rides that I had some music. I biked with friends so it wasn't so bad, we'd chat etc, but occasionally we'd lose each other due to hills or speed. Those were the times that I wanted music. My century ride was in 2008.
Fast forward to last summer, I had two kids and a jog stroller. Sometimes I'd use my iPod, but other times my daughter wanted to listen to music so last year I asked for this for my birthday.


It's awesome, it's the iHome Bike to Beach Speaker
It even comes with a remote! I'd put the speaker in my cupholder on the BOB jogger and hand my daughter the remote. She'd be content flipping through songs during my run. :) This last weekend I busted it out again during my jog stroller run, fortunately my 11 month old didn't have a choice of music and I was able to listen to my running playlist while he was content with his Cheerios.
I haven't had the opportunity to use it on my road bike yet, but I'm eagerly awaiting the day I get to use it.

The PR that wasn't

Work has blocked blogger from me which means I haven't been able to post about what happened.
After the Mermaid Half Marathon, I looked up my race time from the San Jose 1/2 Marathon, my previous PR and saw that the chip time was faster than what I had written in my race log. So my Mermaid Half PR was not a PR. I ran it in 2:06:24. A mere 41 seconds faster than Mermaid Half. Doh! I totally could of picked up my pace for that. :( Guess I gotta keep racing.

Mermaid 1/2 Marathon Post-Race Summary

I PR'd!!!! That's the most important thing about the race. ;) Final time: 2:07:05. Garmin mileage 13.19 miles.

Ok, race review. As you may have read from the previous post, I signed up for this race 4 days prior on Tuesday. It was still open and I had found a discount coupon for $11 off. So in total I paid ~$50 to run the race. The family and I headed down to Sports Basement Friday before the race to pick up my bib and spend $$. Sports Basement offered 20% off all purchases when shopping that night if in race.

The swag was awesome! Check it out! We got a cool shopping bag that is heavy duty. Could be used as a purse or regular bag. 3 colors to chose from, daughter picked blue for me. We got a necklace and a ladies fitted shirt. So cute!!

The race was pretty well run, it started at Shoreline park in Mountain View. Plenty of parking, porta potties and very clearly indicated start/finish line. The event was chip timed. Start was supposed to be at 8am, but didn't actually start until 8:18am. This was nice because hubby was taking daughter to dance class in the am and was able to make it to see me end.

I met up with a friend to run the race. Me feeling pretty good took off at 1/2 mile in and just cruised. I did wear an ipod since I was alone and like having music in the background. I was doing pretty good and turned around at the halfway point just over an hour in. Then I started to loose steam. I was thirsty and getting tired. I did push myself even though at 11 miles I was pretty tired. I kept looking at my watch and saw that I was on track for a PR so I kept pushing.

When I rounded the corner to the end, I gave it my all and finished. I had to sit down afterwards and drink water and recoup for a min or so, I was beat. I needed food and water. My friend finished shortly after I did and we headed to the food. It was a good spread. Pretzels, bananas, chocolate, grapes and pancakes. Yum! Very well set up.

All in all, I would totally do this race again. I had a lot of factors that could have prevented me from PRing. 1) Baby boy was teething the night before and was up screaming several times. (I was up with him at midnight and 3am. 2) Daughter slept in bed with me waking me up at 6am complaining about snails in the bed. 3) Dog woke me up at 5:30 am wanting out. 4) I started my period the night before and was having cramping. 5) I had just run a half marathon the weekend before.

BUT despite all that...I finished and I did better than I've done before. :) It was a good day.

And to finish my day...I went to a photography class I had signed up for a while back and planted a garden. So it's to be expected that I'm this sore today right?!

Artichoke 1/3 Marathon Post-race summary

I didn't get to it, but here is my Artichoke 1/2 Marathon summary.
The day of the race was predicted to be rainy and have high wind advisories. As we were driving to the race it was super windy!
We got to the race and talk about disorganized. We parked at the post office, I watched where people were heading and followed them to a town hall of sorts. In there I got my race number, artichoke and t-shirt. But as I was waiting for my t-shirt I realized I was in the bathroom line rather than t-shirt line. And it was a pretty long line for the one stall bathroom. I decided to walk to the corner gas station and use that bathroom instead.

I should have seen it as a sign when as I was shivering, waiting in the gusty wind for the bathroom that nobody in that line had ever done this race.

The starting line was no where to be seen, a lot of us were just huddling behind buildings or in cars waiting to see what was going to happen. The race was scheduled to start at 9am. At 9:02, still nothing was happening. Finally there was a man starting to herd people to an area in front of the town hall. But it was just the 10kers and half marathon walkers. So he verbally yelled out directions and sent them on their way clocking their time with a stop watch. He said half marathon runners will start in 10 min. At that time it had begun to rain.

9:15am we lined up in front of the town hall, we were yelled directions and sent on our way. The race wasn't marked for cars so we had to run on the side of the road. The weather was a lot worst than expected. The winds were so strong it slowed my pace down to 13-14 min/mile during big gusts. The rain was pouring and I was thoroughly soaked by 3 miles. And I mean all the way down to my shoes being squishy. I was miserable. I had trained soooo hard for this race, hoping to PR. I ran 12 miles in 1:58 the weekend before so I was on track for making it a great run. I know weather couldn't be accounted for, but it was really depressing. Each mile I kept thinking of how my husband and two children were in the car waiting for me. At the 10k turn around I stopped for a couple of minutes and stared at the sign. I almost turned around right then but decided to go for a couple of more miles and turn around later.

At 4.75 miles out there was a turn around. I thought yippee they cut the course short due to weather. At that turn around they handed out bottles of water. What was I going to do with a whole bottle of water?! I was able to hand it to some spectator walking near the turn so I didn't have to carry it. (FYI there was one water stop before this at the 10k turnaround.)

Then as I was running back, I saw someone pointed to turn right on another road. Aha, this is where the extra miles come in. I went for it and like the race director said, ran until I reached a gate and turned around. At least this road was in a canyon and was protected from the wind. It wasn't however sheltered from the rain.

As I was running back to the main road, there was the last water stop, a piece of plywood on the ground with some cups of water on it. I grabbed a sip and then headed home. The wind being behind me should have been a good thing, but nope. It was at an angle so I had to be careful since it was so strong and would push me into the street into oncoming traffic. I had read that the course was marked long (well at the gate there wasn't even anyone there indicating where to turn around) so at 13.1 I lapped my watch. 2:23 it said. Which was right on with my slowest half. I ran by the car and husband and daughter were watching me, cheering. I grabbed my daughter's hand and ran to the "finish". And I say "finish" because it was just 3 cones on the ground in front of the town hall. The guy with the stopwatch was in the building out of the rain/wind. So I had to walk over to the doorway, and he read my time 2:24 on his watch and marked my bib. My garmin quoted the course to be 13.35 miles.

We didn't stick long after the race, I grabbed a candy bag and was given a generic race medal. It is a pic of 3 guys running across a finish line. No engraving...nothing. I guess that's what you get for paying only $25 to do a half marathon.

I changed out of my sopping wet clothes and headed home. I couldn't help but be disappointed that all of my hard work went for nothing. BUT, a friend let me know that there was another half marathon in our area on the following Saturday. And as luck would have it, it was still had open spots AND I found a discount coupon for it. It was fate. I signed up on Tuesday to run the Mermaid 1/2 Marathon in Mountain View.