Country Music Half Marathon

There really is nothing quite like an early morning in a beautiful city with 30,000+ other sweaty people. :) I had pretty high expectations for this run, and Nashville did not disappoint. It is such a lovely city full of lovely people; and I really enjoyed running on an unfamiliar route because I had very little idea what was coming around the next corner.  The weather was beautiful (if a little warmer than I was hoping for), and running with Daniel and my brother, Michael, made it really special.

The course itself was much hillier than I was prepared for, so I'm not going to lie - around mile 9 I shed a few tears.  But I did it!  According to my official results, I ran an average pace of twelve and a half minutes per mile, but because of a few stops (some necessary, some to see my peeps), my real pace was closer to eleven and a half minutes per mile, which is perfectly fine with me.  I'm just so happy I was able to run the whole thing with all those hills!

Here I am running up the very last hill (my family was waiting for me at mile 12.5 -- Thanks, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Aunt Kristie, Elli and Cara!).  I was sooooo happy to see them and hug the girls, but after a few moments I realized how badly I needed to get to the finish line, because I started to feel like I could collapse.  No worries, I made it safe and sound, though!  (thanks, Dad for the pic!)

All three of the runners were pretty glad to put those hills behind us, and I think the whole family was grateful to put all the crowds behind us for a few days of this: