Half Marathon, Rockin' Dallas

I don't know what could have happenned to make this past weekend better than it was.  I traveled up from San Antonio to Dallas on Saturday morning with my race buddies, Ray and Gabi.  We made the trip in just over 4 hours instead of the 5 we were planning for.  We parked for free at our hotel and were allowed to check in a whole three hours early before walking over to the race expo at the convention center one block away.  At the expo I got my race day singlet, pink, for raising over $500 for the Komen for the cure foundation. 

 (BTW, I am still raising money until April 14th if you were planning to pledge but weren't able to get around to it before race day.  You can visit my race and pledge page by clicking here: http://www.active.com/donate/RNRDallas/laurapforce )

After the expo, we had some time before our pasta party so we toured the JFK Museum which was pretty emotional.  I was happy to have the time to soak it all in.  The hotel itself was really rockin.  If you are ever in the Dallas downtown area I recommend the ALOFT hotel.  It was tres chique.  We hung out in the chill area downstairs with our friend Brice after dinner and then all headed up to bed for an early night before a big race.

In the morning I got all dressed and ready, watched the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders dance from my room.  They were at the start line.  Yeah, we were that close.  The race started at 8 am which is pretty much the time I lined up after one more run into the hotel for a potty stop.  Then we were off.  I ran with my friend Tom, the 59 yr old friend who I usually chase on training runs.  We ran together for 6 miles.  Ordinarily, I talk down to myself in my head for 3 miles so having Tom around kept my out of my head and into really enjoying the beautiful weather we were blessed with. Sunny and cool.

Kevin and the kids surprised me by driving up on the morning of the race and I got to stop for hugs.  This photo is as I was arriving for hug stop number 2.  Tom left me at this point and finished a few minutes ahead of me.  It had to be killing him to run that slow for 6 miles. Thanks Tom!

I convinced myself a step at a time to just keep running.  Dori from finding Nemo is one encouraging fish.  I finished up at Fair Park outside of the Cotton Bowl and was reunited with my family and Angie's family too.  Angie figured out that it has been 11 years since we have seen each other.  Another incredible reminder that life is sure flying. 

We decided real quickly that THAT will never happen again.  Maybe we will get together next month for some tubing on the Guadalupe. The trick is to go during the week so it's not so crowded. Hmm...I hope that works out.  Her oldest, Trinity, is almost 10.  And I'm pretty sure Elijah, the hip chic I am holding with the cool glasses, is 3. Emaleigh pretty much jumped right into Angie's arms.  I love it when families click like that.  I am assuming the feeling was mutual.

We spent a couple hours in the park right in front of the hotel.  Trinity took my picture.  Oh, if you could see that shot, you'd surely see one tired, but happy moma (with a camera ofcourse)