Half #3: check!

Saturday morning may have just been the most beautiful run I’ve ever been on. All 13.1 miles of it.

Let me back up. My dad and I got to Charlottesville on Friday afternoon, where, after checking into the hotel, our first stop was the DG house. I guess that’s what happens when you eat, sleep, and breathe Delta Gamma. After a few pictures with the house and the anchor, we went and picked up one of my best friends from high school, Shannon! It was really exciting to be able to see her and catch up, and she came with us to the expo and to carboload at a local Italian restaurant. Post pizza and gelato, we called it a night so that we could get enough sleep for our race.

With a 6:30 start time, we had the alarm set for 5:00.. which came a lot sooner than I thought it would… luckily, we were excited. See??:

Yes, I wore my Texas shorts. As a side note, it was the best decision I’ve ever made, because I got so many comments on them during the race! I think everyone thought I was from Texas.. Which I’m not, obviously, but it was still exciting to be able to provide some excitement for the Texans who were running – their faces lit up when they saw me!

Anyways, the Charlottesville Half was a really, REALLY beautiful race. While some of it winds through campus (which, side note, is my favorite college campus, and I have seen a lot of them), the majority of the race takes you through Virginia wine country. The majority of the course was rolling hills, which really didn’t feel too bad on my legs until the next morning. I kind of prefer rolling hills? I find the up/down a lot more interesting to race on than just flat ground. Here are a few of the views:

 

For a lot of the race, I ran behind a man who had the American flag (full sized, with flag pole) on his back. Talk about inspiration.

I finished a whole seven minutes faster than I ran my last half in May. I’m not super fast, and I didn’t finish anywhere near the top of the heap, but I’m pretty proud for shaving over 30 seconds off my average mile time. Hopefully for my next one, once I’m settled somewhere, I’ll be able to train exactly how I need to and will be able to cut even more time.

It was a beautiful run and really a perfect way to start my Saturday. I’m already excited to keep building my race calendar for summer, and I’ve got my training plan for the Marine Corps Marathon already in my planner – in pen!