Since the St. Jude half-marathon was cancelled due to the bitterly cold weather (which I was both mad and glad about all at the same time), we decided to go ahead and sign up for another race pretty soon. We'd done all that training and I hated for it to go completely to waste. We decided to sign up for the Mercedes-Benz Half-Marathon in Birmingham on Valentine's weekend since Bailey's dad was planning to run the full. Due to the way the expo was set up and a few other things, we decided to leave Sidney Kate at home with my parents.
So, we pulled on out that Saturday morning and headed to Birmingham. We went straight to the expo to pick up our race packets and then made our way to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. (Mr. Jeff had our meals and stops, etc. planned out since he'd run this race a time or two before). After a wonderful lunch, we went to the hotel to check in and get a little rest. We got back out a little later for some shopping and to carb-load at Macaroni Grill.
Sunday was race day! It was a chilly morning but perfect for a run. I knew going into it that it was a fairly hilly course. It was certainly tough. Not so much hilly as long, slow, gradual inclines. I can handle tackling hills but those slow inclines are killer! Bailey had to stop for a potty break a few miles in and I thought he would never catch up but he finally did.
Finished! Ran the whole 13.1! That was my main goal--to run the entire thing, no walking at all. Our time was 2:16:10 with a pace of 10:24/mile. I was quite pleased with the time.
There was a huge post-race celebration in the convention center where we enjoyed some barbecue. We ate and relaxed a little bit before going back to the hotel to shower and get on the road to go get our baby girl! Such a great weekend!
And just because, here are a few of the pictures I received from my while we were away. Lunch at El Charro is always a show.
After lunch they made a trip to Walmart for a few happies.
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