Flying Pig Half Marathon RR

It has been a tough two weeks prior to this race.  First, I got an asthma bout that made me cancel the Star Wars Dark Side Half Marathon because I could barely get off the couch without an asthma attack.  Then, I traveled for work to our training facility in South Carolina and because of the prednisone I had to take for the asthma, my defenses were super low and I got sick with a bad cold.  As I type this RR, I am still somewhat congested and my lungs are still coughing, even two weeks after the cold started.

Fortunately, although I had to cut two weeks of mileage, I was sort of back to normal by the time we left for the Pig.  I even ran an 18 miler on Thursday before we left and that went well.  I wasn't racing this half marathon, first because it's super hilly, but also because I wasn't feeling good enough to race this and I did not want to mess with my marathon training any more than I had between knee surgery, asthma, and the cold.  So, we were planning on having a fun race, considering my husband was also sick with the same cold I got, ha.

Some of my friends were doing the three day challenge at the Pig and traveled to the race before us and started having fun even before I got on the plane.  I was looking forward to seeing them again and hopefully had dinner/lunch with them and have some fun.  We had to shorten our trip and instead of Friday to Sunday we were flying into Columbus Saturday and would drive the almost two hours to Cinci to meet with them and do the same on Sunday.

I woke up on Saturday super congested so my husband gave me a Zyrtec, which I dropped back in November because, among other things, all my meds were making me into a zombie.  Without fail, I slept through the whole flight and part of the drive because I was again a zombie. Thanks, meds.  Glad to have dropped you for a few months.  We got to the expo in the early afternoon and met my girlfriends:

You can see the zombie face I have barely awake.  But it was awesome seeing them again.

We spent the afternoon at the movies watching Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and then walk back to downtown for a nice burger at Bru Burger & Bar (which a friend had recommended last year in Indy and since then we love to hit any of the Brus available.  We were in bed by 11pm.

Woke up at 6:30am and got ready.  I felt less of a zombie since the Zyrtec was mostly out of my system, but my chest was still congested, although not badly.  Temps were lovely (high 30s) with windchills in the mid 30s.  Perfect for running a marathon and should feel great for the half.  I brought a long sleeve, which I never like to use in the 30s because I get too hot, but since I was run/walking with hubby and I wasn't feeling my best, I thought it would be good.  Outfit fail.  I was bursting on fire by Mile 1.

We headed to the corrals and tried to meet my girlfriends but we were unable to.  Took a couple of pictures of us in the corral and we started off:

The first 7 miles of the course has some rolling hills but the part in Kentucky is sort of flat (not Miami flat, but doable).  The water stations are great and the entertainment on the course is awesome.  This race is a must do and often.  When we reached the part of the big hills, we walked a lot of it.  I was fine but had to cough a lot through the course I was so congested.  It never got better but it wasn't too bad either.

After the hill was over, hubby wanted to rush a bit more so we hit our favorite tunes on our iPods and hit it.  He was again ahead of me at Mile 12.80 and hell no, I could not let him best me this time.  However, I felt like I couldn't breathe but I pushed on and passed by around the 13 mile marker, yelled, hell no, and passed him to finish. LOL.  We finished around 2:36 which, for this race is a great time for him.

After we were done, we found the water and food and most important, the beer.  Met with Deb, my friend, who was done before us:

And waited for our other friends to finish:

All had fun and looked gorgeous.  We then headed to lunch at a pizza place Kathy had recommended and it was great.

I could see us doing this race every year (I ran the marathon last year and the half this year).  Maybe next time I'll do the three way challenge.  But this race has it all, great bling, great goodies (we get a bag at the expo, a poster, a sticker, and lots of stuff).  There is no bacon station for the half, but there is a huge one for the marathon, and a place where you shoot some hoops.  This is not a PR race by the any means, unless you measure PRs in fun.  And that this race has in droves.

Three weeks until my first marathon back from knee surgery!  I can't wait!