SOPHIE'S HALF

 Sophie ran the Fit for Agriculture Half Marathon today, and I joined her for the first half of the race (unregistered, just to keep her company). It was a small event that was well organized and had a good turnout as far as the caliber of runners (there are some FAST runners in our area!) as well as support crew. The only complaint I heard was the lack of a porta-potty out on the half course. And perhaps needing one more water station down at the turnaround (it was an out-and-back course). Not many hills (more of a rolling course), it was cool and foggy, and they had BBQ pork sandwiches for the finishers (and medals, of course). You really can't ask for much more from a race.

Here is Sophie around mile 9 (I ran to near mile 8, where I'd stowed my car before the race, then drove past her on the way back to snap photos and cheer her on). She was smiling, and as I like to say, "prancing" down the street. She always looks like she's flying to me.

 When I got back to the start/finish area, Manu was patiently waiting for his mama:

She came in pretty near to when I expected her back based on her time at the turnaround, and I think she was really happy with her finish time. I'm sure proud of her!

Manu, Leo, and Alex cheering her on

Carrying Manu across the finish line

Little Leo liked his mama's medal...

Our friend Kristi won Overall Female for the half and the rest of our age group medalists were pretty close behind her (the 30-34 female group is filled with FAST ladies!) In the men's half, our friend Ashley's husband won 3rd in his age group. Al ran the 10K (it was both a half marathon and 10K event) and placed 2nd in his age group (and he went into the race without training)! He had a great finish time and looked really strong when he passed us after his turnaround (and was ahead of just about everybody). He rolled his eyes when they announced his name for a trophy, but he assured me it's because Sophie and I embarrassed him by screaming so loud. Sorry Al, we can't help but be proud of our buddy!

I'm starting to get really excited about my own half marathon in February. Don't get me wrong, I'm REALLY glad I didn't have to power through 13 miles today (8 was plenty for me, especially at Sophie's race pace, which averaged 9:30/mile), but doing my Saturday long run at about a minute faster per mile than my usual pace and surviving (albeit with more soreness than usual post-run) has me feeling pretty confident that I'll enjoy the RNR Half in a couple months. My main goal is still to just finish, but I'm forming a loose goal in my mind of completing it in around 2 hours and 15 minutes. We'll see how training progresses, of course, but it's nice to have at least some idea what my race pace might be. I just have to "keep on running, keep on running"!