Bwahaha I Did It!!!

So, today was the A1A Fort Lauderdale half marathon and as you could probably could tell from the title of my post, I conquered this race. Now, my goal for this race was to do it under 2 hours. I had trained hard to make it happen, but with all of the things going on this week, I didn't think I would make it, but I did it!!!!!

This past week was hell for me. I worked really hard at work and still wasn't able to meet the deadline I wanted. However, regardless of all the roadblocks in my way, it worked out. The bad news is that this week will also be stressful at work. My biggest problem, however, is that I bring this stress home. Usually, I just become really quiet and go to bed early. My husband sensing this, sent me surprise flowers for valentines day with the sweetest message.  Check it out:

I was absolutely stunned. He's pretty awesome :)

On top of everything, there was a problem with the house we put an offer on. The inspection turned out pretty poorly, and we're most likely going to withdraw our offer. We tried to talk things over with the sellers and other realtor, but they pretty much suck so we'll be moving on. It's just disappointing, but I know we will find something else sooner or later. I just don't want to settle. I want to find something that we love that doesn't have a buttload of problems (and who will accept our offer).

So all of this happened this past week and we all know how all these stresses = having a not so stellar race. So, I decided not to care. Saturday I went to the expo and picked up my goody bag which was pretty awesome: two Kashi cereal bowls, two beef jerky samples, trail mix, and a breakfast to go bar. The shirt was pretty awesome too. However, what was not awesome was the ridiculous traffic to get into the expo. It was held at the Broward Convention Center which is also right next to the port. By being next to the port, the security is strict and makes getting there kind of a pain.

After picking up my packet and looking over the event info I realized the race was at 6 a.m. I swore it was at 7, but I was obviously totally wrong. (Again, this shows you how out of sync I was with everything.) However, it wasn't a big deal and I just figured I needed to go to bed early. So I did my pre-race routine of charging my Garmin and Ipod to ensure they wouldn't die on me out there. We went to sushi for dinner with friends at night and called it a night.

I woke up at 4:10 a.m. to get ready for the race. I knew parking was going to suck and I wanted to give myself more than enough time. I grabbed my Garmin, Ipod, sport jelly beans, glide and walked out the door. What I wasn't prepared for was the ridiculous cold weather outside. It was bone chilling!!!! I had my tights on that my husband bought for me for Christmas and a long sleeve tech shirt. However, I knew if I put on much more cold weather gear I would die when the sun came out. When I got to the race I ran into some traffic but found a secluded parking lot and it worked out perfectly. I raced over to the start line just so I could keep warm. I looked for my friend T who was doing the race but he was no where to be found. I set my Ipod right before the gun went off, and waited.

Once the race started, I took off. I really didn't look at my watch until mile 2 but I knew I had passed the 2:00 hour half marathon pace group. When I got to mile 2 I saw I had pulled a 17:30. Not bad I thought to myself. I just chugged away feeling pretty awesome in the cool weather. The route was pretty awesome and my favorite part had to be going through Birch park. It was just peaceful and beautiful. Once I got to mile 8, I knew I was making pretty good time. I thought I could really pull off my goal. During the race another male runner around my pace started running beside me. I think we paced off each other for a couple of miles, not talking or making eye contact, just literally running next to each other. I felt fantastic until mile 11. My quad completely cramped up and it hurt when I pushed down. I was doing so well but I knew I had to back off my pace. I could still make my time, so I paced the next two miles. As I got to mile 12, I knew I pretty much did it. I didn't care if I had to hobble to the finish I was going to make my freaking goal lol. I semi-sprinted it in and came in with a clock time of 1:55. I saw my friends N, G, and K all waiting for me. I seriously love them. It's amazing to have a group of people like that who fully support you and are excited for you to reach your goals. We tried to wait around for my official time but it took too long. However, my official time was a 1:52:53. This is how I pretty much felt afterwards:

On top of the world!!