Scranton Half Marathon 2016 Recap

How is it possible that I haven't written this recap yet?! Actually, it's because I literally didn't take any photos since I was too busy running my ass off and PRing! The day started out like most other races: Joe and I got there plenty early and sat in the car for a while because it was a little chilly. He kept asking me how I felt and what my goal was and I kept telling him that I had absolutely no idea how the day was going to go. Deep down, I knew I'd be elated if I could finally run my sub-2, but honestly, no part of me thought that was possible at this point.

The race started on time and we were off! It was a cold morning, but the sun was out so I warmed up pretty quickly. Plus, I went out faster than I normally do for races, so that helped warm me up too. I was a little alarmed when I saw my first two mile times, but it felt pretty good so I decided to just ride it out as long as possible. I didn't have a goal time since my training had been sporadic since the Princess Half, so I would have been okay with sputtering out midway and just taking it easy from there on out. However, that didn't happen...

In some insane twist of fate, I kept running faster and faster until I was at the point where I knew I could sub-2 and knew I'd totally hate myself if I didn't. I mean, an 8:34 mile during a half marathon?! For me!? What the hell was going on?? But it did catch up with me and by mile 9, I was totally and completely done. I hated myself for getting into the position to sub-2. I hated myself for not letting myself give up now that I was in the position to sub-2. I hated my legs, which were nothing more than flaming, painful appendages flailing from my lower body. I hated my lungs, which were consumed with the same fire as my legs. I hated the people in front of me who, for some idiotic reason, I still felt like I had to chase down.

I struggled through the last two miles, like seriously struggled. I was in so much pain. But I knew there would be no living with myself if I didn't follow through now that I had gotten so far, so I soldiered on. I hit mile 13 and saw my husband as I came into the stadium. He had been watching the clock and hoping that I was going to come in under the 2 hour mark, but I don't know if he really expected to see me when I came through. I remember seeing the clock as I rounded the corner of the track and knew it was almost over and that I had done it. I crossed the finish line, got my medal, and had just enough time to find Joe and hug him before I started crying and my legs gave out simultaneously. We walked around for a little while like that, me crying and him supporting me like a giant handsome crutch, while I tried to process what I had just accomplished.

Looking back on it now with some distance, I'm still just as emotional and proud as I was then. I've never, ever pushed myself as hard as I did that day and I'm so damn proud of it. This was a race that is going to stick with me for a very long time and now when I hit a rough spot with training, I can look back on this race and remember what I'm capable of.

Disney Princess Half Marathon 2016 Race Recap

The day had finally come! I woke up not-so-bright, but definitely early to my alarm at 2:30am and got right out of bed. I was tired at first, but as soon as I realized what I was up for, I perked right up! I had all my stuff laid out from the night before, so we got ready pretty quickly and caught a bus shortly after 3am. The wait before heading to the corrals was looooong and cold, so we held on to our sweats until the very last second before gear check closed.

We decided to wait in the super long lines for the bathroom one last time before heading to the corrals. Apparently this was a bad idea, as we wound up having to jog all the way to our corral and made it with probably two minutes to spare before they started releasing the corrals. We both submitted proof of time with runDisney so we would be seeded in better corrals. Joe was placed in C and I was in D, so he dropped back with me so we could run together. This is one huge tip for these races, if you do nothing else, PLEASE submit a proof of time!

Each corral was released with an incantation from the Fairy Godmother and a burst of fireworks and before we knew it, it was our turn! It took a while for us to get into a comfortable pace and our first few miles were super inconsistent due to another bathroom break and attempting to stop for mile marker photos (FYI, they do not turn out well with an iPhone). I had been having IT band issues for two weeks before this race and I was so worried that it was going to flare up again, but I figured I would just start out conservatively and see how things went.

Things were going so much better than expected as we ran through the Magic Kingdom sign and onto the best miles of the race... Miles 4, 5, and 6 bring you into, through, and out of Magic Kingdom and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't one of the coolest experiences of my life. Joe knows because I kept turning to him and saying, "This is so cool! This is SOOOO cool!"

Running down Main Street USA is like a dream come true and it's over before you know it. But don't worry, because you still get to cruise around Tomorrowland before making your way through Cinderella Castle and onto Frontierland. And can we just take a second to appreciate how insanely perfect this castle photo is?! I have had maybe two decent race photos in the dozen races I've done in the past three years, so this is some serious Disney magic!

Unfortunately, once you head out of MK, the course gets a little boring. It's mainly highway and it gets super narrow, but we had a lot of fun obnoxiously singing Aladdin songs and (safely!) weaving in and out of slower runners and walkers. I guess my Gu kicked in at this point because I had TONS of energy around miles 7 and 8! Miles 9, 10, and 11 were challenging and I was definitely starting to feel the fatigue in my legs from having not run for two weeks and for touring the parks heavily for two days before the race. I live in PA so I'm not afraid of hills, but I totally was not happy to see those overpasses so close to the end! There was no way I was stopping to walk there though, so we just kept right on running.

It was so bittersweet to see Epcot and know that the end was near. On one hand (foot?), my legs were spent and I wanted nothing more than to stop running. But on the other, I didn't want this experience to end. I had dreamed about running this race for three years and it felt like it was over in the blink of an eye.

We crossed the finish line together, hand in hook, with an official time of 2:24:01. The announcers actually called us in by name as we came to the line, which was just sweet icing on an already perfect cake. A volunteer asked if I wanted to be pixie dusted (uh, yes please!) and we continued on down the pathway to receive our medals. After experiencing the madness that was the Broad Street post-run area, we were both incredibly impressed with how organized this was. We each were also handed a mylar blanket, purple drawstring bag, water, and snack box.

I originally had planned on hanging out a little bit after the race, but it was so crowded and I just really wanted to take a shower, so we hopped on the waiting buses and headed back to All Star Sports. Plus, I was dying to get to Epcot!

We relaxed a little in the room after showering and made our way to Epcot just after 10am. I specifically planned Epcot for the day of the half, knowing full well how much walking it was going to be, because it was also going to be the best for eating (and drinking)! We started out with Via Napoli for lunch and ice cream at Beaches 'n Cream a few hours later. The pizza at Via Napoli was fantastic and the arancini is probably my new favorite appetizer anywhere. We really enjoyed walking to Beaches 'n Cream and exploring the Beach and Yacht Club resorts; we also really enjoyed the No Way José sundae!

After ice cream, I was feeling too sober, so we beelined for Germany where I had the Schofferhofer pink grapefruit beer. I generally don't prefer beer, but this one was perfectly light and fruity with only the slightest "beer" aftertaste. We explored the World Showcase as I enjoyed my beer and eventually made our way back into Future World to check out the Seas and the Land. At some point, we did ride Test Track and Spaceship Earth, but I'm forgetting now where they fit in during the day. Dinner brought us back to World Showcase at La Hacienda de San Angel and what a dinner it was. I've become a margarita freak over the past few years and those margaritas will be hard to top! Joe and I both had shrimp tacos and more chips and salsa than I care to admit, so we were both completely stuffed by the time we got up to leave. We made a stop back at Germany to visit the caramel shop for dessert, which actually wound up being breakfast the new morning (mmmm, caramel s'mores at 8am!), and very slowly made our way out of the park, savoring our last moments of Walt Disney World before embarking on our first cruise the next day. 

People always seem to be looking for information on this race, so if I can leave you with a few tips, they would be:

• Don't underestimate 13.1! Do your training and your body will thank you.
• Submit a proof of time! This gives you a better corral placement and more time for fun and photos on the course.
• Definitely plan on spending time in the parks after the race and wear your medal(s)!! We got so much acknowledgement from cast members and other visitors and it made us feel awesome. Plus, some light walking after the race will help you feel better the next day. I say this as if we did "light walking;" we put a total of 28.6 miles on our legs on Sunday!

In short, if you are thinking of running the Princess Half Marathon (or really any runDisney race), I urge you to DO IT! I know they are expensive, but if you love Disney and love running, it will be worth every penny.

Scranton Half Marathon 2015 Recap

On Sunday, I completed the 2nd annual Scranton Half Marathon. After my fairly painful experience at the Hot Chocolate 15k the weekend before, I was slightly nervous about the half. I actually debated dropping out for a brief moment, but we ran the inaugural race last year and it's really important to both Joe and me that we become legacy runners for this awesome local race. Besides, I'm not the type of person to just drop out and not even try. :P

The expo was nice and not overly crowded when we picked our packets up on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, they were sold out of this year's hoodies, but I scored a water bottle and stemless wine glass from last year's race on clearance! I learned my lesson and will be preordering a sweatshirt next year for sure because I'm really bummed that I don't have this year's. A girl can never have too many sweatshirts.

Puts it into perspective, doesn't it?

Race morning started by dragging myself out of bed at 6am, getting dressed, eating some oatmeal, and heading out the door just after 7am. We got to the race by 7:30 and were able to park nice and close in the high school parking lot. We lined up around 8:45 and the race started promptly at 9am. I didn't really have a plan; I did want to use intervals, but the timer app that I downloaded wouldn't work if my phone screen was off so I ditched that right away. I ended up basically running the downhills and walking the uphills, with additional walk breaks whenever I felt I was pushing too hard.

The course was the same as last year and I felt like I enjoyed it more this year because I got an extra hour to take it all in! The weather was also fantastic just like last year. It was 37 and sunny when we started and 55 and sunny when I finished three hours later. Somewhere around mile two or three, I wound up around two women running for Team in Training. They were doing intervals that matched up pretty well to what I was doing, so I creepily followed behind them for a while and I'm so glad I did. Those two women were so uplifting to listen to. They thanked every volunteer, built each other up, and cheered on other runners and walkers. Their positivity really resonated with me and helped change my mood from "ugh this sucks being injured and being in the back" to "I'm so thankful that I can still be out here doing this even if I'm not 100%".

Lackawanna Heritage Trail portion of the race

I ended up following those ladies (not the ones in the photo, I passed them :P) until mile eight when my good knee turned into my bad knee and I had to switch my knee brace over and walk for a while. I decided that I would walk to mile 10 and in the meantime, I took some ibuprofen and a salted caramel Gu. They both kicked in right around the same time and at mile 10, I was ready to go! I knew it wasn't smart, but I ran a lot of the last three miles. I just felt so good and I knew it was because of the pain killers, but I wasn't feeling the snapping in the back of my knee like I usually do and that's not something pain killers can dull, so I figured I was okay to run. I finished with an official time 2:57:36, which is officially my slowest half marathon, but you know what? I'm not mad. I wasn't disappointed when I finished and I haven't felt upset at all in the days following. I'm just happy that I was able to get out there and participate in this great event and enjoy a beautiful day.

The medals feature an electric trolley, part of Scranton's history as the "Electric City." It's fantastically heavy and although I like last year's design better, I'm thrilled with this one too. They also gave out awesome fleece blankets at the finish like last year! The list of reasons why I love this race is far too long. Hopefully I'll be healthy and fast(ish) again for next year!

Hot Chocolate 15k Philadelphia Recap

On Saturday morning, my husband and I completed the Hot Chocolate 15k race in Philadelphia (bum leg and all!). We love going down to Philly to run because we get to stay with my best friend and her boyfriend who we don't get to see nearly enough. I got out of work at noon on Friday, so we drove right down and went to the expo, which was fantastic. We got there around 4pm and there were hardly any lines for bib or goody bag pickup. They had a separate area where you could try on your sweatshirt and switch sizes if needed and every single volunteer we interacted with was so kind and helpful! We walked around for a few minutes, got a few free samples, grabbed some hot chocolate and marshmallows, and decided to head back out.

We stopped at the Reading Terminal Market right before they closed and looked around a bit before heading back to the apartment to make dinner (pasta, obviously!), play Cards Against Humanity, eat candy, and go to bed early. We woke up the next morning planning to leave around 6:40 to get to the start around 7 and it worked out perfectly. We got dropped off a little ways away from the art museum and walked to the starting area, thinking it would be a great warm up but nothing was going to warm us up from that wind! It was around 50 degrees but the wind was killer! We watched the 5k start and then huddled in the merch tent to stay warm until they called us to line up in our corrals.

The 15k started right on time at 8am; Joe started in the first corral and I started in the second. We submitted proof of time to be placed there and I stayed up there to give me a cushion against the time limit since I knew I wouldn't be running the whole thing. I ran the first half mile and then started doing quarter mile walk/run intervals. I made it to mile 5 with that strategy with minimal irritation before my leg started yelling at me. From that point on, I walked and tried not to hate myself for possibly messing my leg up further.

The course itself was nice aside from the wind, which obviously isn't the race director's fault. It didn't seem very hilly to me, although I know there were some hills. They don't seem as bad when you're walking them. ;) I typically don't like out and back courses, but the view of the river and Boathouse Row was a great distraction, plus the Philadelphia Museum of Art makes an awesome finish line area. I wound up with an official finish time of 2:18:34 which winds up being juuuuuuuust under the required average pace of 15:00 min/mile.

The finish line area wasn't crowded at all; I found a volunteer and got my medal (so cute!), grabbed a bottle of water from another volunteer, and made my way over to Joe who waited to get his finisher's mug until I was done. Seriously, I have the best husband ever. The mug had hot chocolate, a banana, and chocolate fondue with a bunch of little things to dip in it. We made our way over to the "Rocky steps" with the thought process being that they would block some of the wind (they really didn't) and enjoyed our mug there. My leg actually felt decent, so we decided to start on the two mile trek back to the apartment in the wind.

I showered, iced my leg, ate a delicious salad from Sweetgreen, and we headed out again because I wanted to go to Lululemon and Whole Foods. Between the race and all the walking around the city we did, my FitBit clocked me at 20.62 miles for the day! Needless to say, I spent the rest of the weekend being totally exhausted and I'm still not even totally caught up today.

Despite not being in proper running condition, I had a great time and would absolutely come back to do this race again when I'm healthy and able to run the whole thing! The organization was great and I can't think of a single thing I could complain about. And can we talk about the perks for a second? The medal is adorable and so detailed and the sweatshirt is so nice! It fits great and I loved that they allowed you to switch sizes at the expo if you needed to. I'll be getting a lot of use out of it! Two thumbs up for the Hot Chocolate series!!

Yuengling Oktoberfest 5k 2014 Recap

My god, this race was disappointing. I can't say I had very high hopes considering how the Yuengling Light 5k turned out, but still. We arrived early to pick up our packets on race day, even though they "would really rather we didn't." Considering our other options were to drive the three hours round trip the day before to get the packets or have them mailed to us for $15 each, it wasn't a difficult decision.

The annoyances started out early when they were out of size small shirts at packet pick up. Why do I bother registering for a specific size if you aren't going to use those numbers to order the proper amount of shirts? We also got a big plastic beer stein with our registration. The race itself started on time and the course was awesome. It wasn't too hilly, the views were good, and the crowding wasn't bad.

 

The finish was where it totally fell apart. Rather than having the cattle shute style finish area like almost every other race in the world has, they decided to set this race up where you have to walk down to some tents and push your way into the crowd of people in the area to get your water, snacks, and finisher's cookie. The cookie was totally the best part of this race, by the way. It was adorable and delicious.
 

 

After we all finished, we decided to go see what was in the beer garden area and get something to eat. We had to sneak into the area past the fence and the security guard because the line JUST for the free beer wound all the way out of the garden and into the street. There was obviously no way I was waiting in that line, so none of us got our free beers that were included with registration.

I feel confident saying that I will never run another Yuengling race again. Both of them that I've done this year have been badly organized and incredibly crowded. Why run a Yuengling race when you can't even get your free beer at the end? Better question, why would you have ONE BEER TENT for the 5,000 runners who have free beer tickets?? For the money I spent on this race, I should have just stayed home, gone for a walk with my family, and bought a case of beer with them to celebrate.

Pocono Lake Region 13.1 2014 Recap

This was my very first half marathon last year, so even though I wasn't in the best of shape from not running most of the summer and for being in phsyical therapy, I knew I wanted to try running it anyway. Sadly, sign ups were way down (possibly because of the Eric Frein manhunt) and there were only about 100 people who ran this year.

It was a chilly, but gorgeous morning and you really couldn't have asked for better scenery. This is a tough, hilly course but it's absolutely stunning this time of year. We started right on time and I knew from mile one that this wasn't going to be fun for me.
 

By mile five, I was taking consistant walk breaks and I just felt so winded and out of energy. My legs were tight and I couldn't for the life of me force myself to run. I wound up completely walking the final three miles and finished in a time of 2:39:32, which I didn't think was too bad considering all the walking I did and all the tough hills. Obviously it's not something for me to brag about, but I figured the fact that I was able to complete the half meant I wasn't in as bad of shape as I thought.

 

I wound up placing 3rd in my age group which was really funny and unexpected. Sadly, they accidently gave away the 16-24 award to the actual 25-34 winner, so I get to pretend that I'm a little older than I actually am. ;)

I made an appointment for a massage right after the race and it was so incredible. The only thing that sucked was getting up off the table afterwards! We had a fantastic crab cake sandwich lunch and relaxed for the rest of the day. Hopefully more people will come back for this race next year and make it a bigger event!

ODDyssey Half Marathon 2014 Recap

I completed my fourth half marathon last Sunday. <--- Still can't believe I can say that. Joe and I ran the ODDyssey Half in Philadelphia over the weekend, partly because it looked like fun and partly because we were able to register for $55 and I thought that was a pretty good deal.

Since the race was in Philadelphia, we drove down the night before and stayed with my best friend who lives there. Megabus was a sponsor of the ODDyssey, so they were offering "free" bus services from the Sonesta Hotel to the start line and back after the race (you had to pay a $1.50 reservation fee, so I don't know why they said it was free). The buses were supposed to pick up from the hotel every 15 minutes, ending at 6:30. We reserved spots for the 6:15 bus so we would have a cushion of time in case something went wrong and it's a good thing we did.

We walked from the apartment to the hotel in the morning and when we got there, the line for the bus was wrapped all the way around the block. We waited and waited and didn't end up getting on a bus until 6:45. As you can probably imagine, I was really annoyed and anxious that we were going to miss the start of the race. By the time the bus arrived at the start line, the national anthem was already being sung, so we ran across the field and got in line quickly with the other runners. The one positive thing about waiting so long for the bus was that we got to use the nice hotel bathrooms instead of the porta potties at the start. ;)

The start of the race seemed to go smoothly and there was enough room that everyone seemed able to run at their own pace. There was slight congestion at one or two points, but nothing bad enough that I had to slow significantly or walk. The course itself through Fairmount Park was beautiful and it made me wish that I lived closer and could run there more often.

It wound up being a humid and sunny 73 degrees and by the time I hit half a mile, I was already damp with sweat. That had me worried because I've never run a half marathon in such warm weather, but the organizers had a lot of water stops (although not enough stops had Gatorade too, but I brought my own bottle with Nuun so at least I had something other than straight water).

  

I've been having soreness in my hip flexors for the past two weeks and it probably wasn't wise of me to run this race, but c'est la vie. They bothered me throughout, but it was never excrutiating and I was able to maintain a pretty fast pace (for me). Unfortunately, they feel pretty awful now and I'm thinking I should probably take a week or two off to rest them up and get them feeling good again.

The last half mile of the race was a ridiculous uphill section. I'm all for a challenge, but this was just cruel. I knew before we signed up that the hill was there, but I thought, "oh people are just babies, I run hills all the time, no big deal." This hill is a big deal. I did manage to muster up enough energy to keep up my run (barely), but the majority of people near me had started walking at this point.

I ended up finishing in 2:09:30 officially, and 2:05:47 according to my watch. I stopped once to stretch out my hips and once to use the restroom, so I definitely would have PRed if it weren't for that. I'm annoyed with myself that I wasted so much time, but I honestly didn't think I'd have any chance of running anywhere near my PR with it being so warm and humid. 

I did learn some important lessons this weekend, though:

1. Don't eat a slice of pizza the size of your head the night before your race. Half a slice would do.
2. Don't wash that gigantic slice of pizza down with an equally huge strawberry Nutella crepe.
3. Don't get 4 hours of sleep the night before your race.
4. Don't wear flip flops to walk around the city the night before.
5. Actually, just don't walk around the city the night before. 

A medal that doubles as a bottle opener... perfection.

All in all, it didn't end up being too bad of a race for me, but I know that if I had disciplined myself and behaved in the days leading up to the race, I may have had a shiny new PR right now. That's a little sad to think about, but I had a great day with beautiful weather and two (mostly) functional legs to run with, so what's there to be sad about?

Yuengling Light Lager Jogger 5k Recap

Oh, this race. I was so excited for this race. The race was held in Pottsville, which is about an hour and forty five minutes from my house so we had a really early morning. The race started at 9am, but we need to be there between 7 and 8:30 to pick up our packets.

We got there at the perfect time and walked right up to get our packets and our beer bracelets for after the race.  We found a sunny spot to wait until just before the start. They released about 500 runners every two minutes starting promptly at 9am.

The race, simply put, was awful. I started getting a stomach ache before the start and foolishly hoped that it would go away once I started running. It didn't. I spent 3.1 long, hilly miles fighting with myself to just keep moving. For the first time since I started running, I had to walk during a 5k. I wasn't happy. This was probably the most hilly course I've ever run, which would have been fine if I was feeling up to it, but I wasn't so nuts about it that morning.

I ended up with a chip time of 34:46, which I'm pretty sure is my worst 5k time ever. In the scheme of things, I am glad that this happened to me for this race instead of the Scranton Half the weekend before though. Besides, we signed up for the Yuengling Oktoberfest 5k in October, so I'll get my re-do then!

My very favorite food truck, What the Fork, made the trek down to Pottsville for the race, which meant I got to chow down on some pork tacos to make me feel better. When I got home, I also enjoyed some lemon lime Nuun in my cool new Lager Jogger pint glass!

A couple thoughts... The swag was awesome. The shirts are comfy and I like the design, but women's cut would be awesome since I swim in the unisex size small. Also, MORE PORTAPOTTIES PLEASE. There's not much I hate more than waiting twenty minutes in line to use the bathroom. There were definitely not enough bathrooms for the 2,000 runners plus however many spectators were there. The after-race block party was pretty awesome and I wish that I had been feeling better so I could have enjoyed it more. Oh well, maybe I'll be back next year to give it another shot!

Inaugural Scranton Half Marathon 2014 Recap

When I found out back in September that Scranton was hosting a half marathon in the spring, I knew I didn't have a choice but to sign up. We don't have an abundance of local races (other than 5ks) and this one looked like it was going to be especially awesome. I got plenty of emails to keep me updated leading up to the race and Joe said packet pickup on Friday night was a breeze.

The morning of the race, we got up at 6am, got ready and out of the house shortly after 7am, and arrived around 7:30. The race was scheduled to start at 9am, so we hung out in the car for a while to relax and stay warm.

At 8:30, we got in line for the bathrooms and then made our way to the start line. The "corral" area was crowded and cramped and it took us a minute or so to get past the start line and into a light jog once the gun sounded promptly at 9am.

Miles 1-5 brought us through a few different communities, including a row of gorgeous houses (and some hills) in Greenridge. The main hills for this course were here, although they weren't too bad. I had a hard time getting into a good pace because of the congestion so my first mile was close to 11 minutes but I picked it up into the 9:40/mile range for the next few. My goal for this race was to run under a 10:00/mile average pace and at first, I didn't think I could pull it off, but as I kept running I realized it just might be possible.

I also realized at this point that I could've done without my jacket. Even though it was only 35º, the sun was out so I warmed up really fast. It was annoying to run with the jacket tied around my waist for most of the race, but we live and we learn and there was no way I was tossing it.

 

It was so cool seeing the huge hoard of people running up the hills in front of me. Normally, I'm driving down these roads and I'm grouchy from the other drivers and the pot holes, so it was a nice change of pace to run through town with so many other people who were clearly enjoying themselves as much as I was. 

Miles 5-7.5 brought us into the downtown area down North Washington Ave and past my very favorite local restaurant, Cooper's Seafood House. Seriously, best crab bisque ever. I kept logging miles around a 9:30 pace and was excited to have a small bank of time for the second half in case I really started to lose it.

The part of the course I was most excited about was running on the Lackawanna Heritage Trail, which I've never done before. It was beautiful even though nothing was blooming yet and I'm really looking forward to getting some runs in here over the coming months.

However, this is the part where I started to struggle. We logged miles 8, 9, and 10 here and I started to have pains in my knee and hips. I took a gel at mile 8 (Salted Caramel Gu is amazing, FYI) and once I hit mile 9, I knew it would be rough but I could tough it out until the end. I switched my watch to show me my current pace and fought hard to keep it under 10:00/mile.

It wouldn't be Scranton if there wasn't at least one train sighting! Well, train car anyway. This was during mile 12, I think. The last mile or so was pretty much downhill, so it was a great chance to make a good push to the finish. I pushed myself really hard in the last two miles and I'm really proud of that. In fact, the last mile was my fastest of the day at 8:45!

The half ended on the track of the Scranton High School with TONS of crowd support and cheering. As I came around the corner, I saw 2:08:something on the clock and knew I had surpassed my expectations for myself. Once I passed the finish line, there were volunteers handing out Scranton Half fleece blankets (I didn't know about this beforehand and was so excited to get one!) and finisher's medals. One of the volunteers put a water bottle in my hand and I hobbled around the food tent to grab a banana. I wish I would have thought to grab a photo of the finish line area, but I was so thrilled by my finish time and exhausted that all I could think about was my water and banana and finding my parents and Joe.

I ended up with an official chip time of 2:07:41, which works out to be a 9:45 average pace. I'm still so thrilled about this and I'm not sure I've even fully processed it yet, but I feel so accomplished. I've never considered myself an athlete, but running has changed that for me. And besides that, look at that medal! It's soooo heavy and absolutely gorgeous! Scranton doesn't mess around; this was the inaugural year and they threw one hell of a race.

And what's better after an awesome run than a burger and sweet potato fries? Not much, I think. My parents joined us for Red Robin after the race and it really hit the spot! Apparently other runners thought so too since we saw quite a few medals around the restaurant! :)

All in all, the one and only complaint I have is that the start was a little congested and it took a while for there to be enough breathing room to run comfortably in the beginning. There were nearly 2400 runners who finished though, so I guess a little congestion is to be expected! But I will DEFINITELY be back next year and I'm already looking forward to it. This was one kick ass race and I'm proud to have been part of something so awesome in the area!