cold | Living My Full Life

Facts: Up at 6AM. Left @ 6:55AM. Hit traffic. Arrived at 7:30AM. Pinned bib & attached chip. Literally ran to the nearest bathroom. Squatted and peed. Ran to start. Boom, time to run!

The weather was a balmy 42*, compared to my last half marathon which was 17*. Over 2,000 runners on the streets of Pittsburgh is cramped but lively! So many people were dressed up and had good spirits, despite our history of being a pretty ~~crappy~~ team. We do have a nice field, which I got to run the bases on today!!

(Me on the left, Hannah on the right. Yes, we are 6 years apart in age. Yes, I am short.)

CROWDED YO.

It took a while to cross the start line, but I LOVED to start and run a bit with my sister. I love her and her love for running at such a young age. When I was 12… I really really didn’t want to run anything more than the mile in gym class, eek!

The race was crowded until the last mile. We were on some trails off of the streets for a little while and they were muddy, which made the run exciting!! I like to dodge puddles/puddle jump :]

Can you see my hair?!? LOL. This was @ the very end, running the bases!

The field never felt so long….

Hannah Banana rockin it!

RESULTS: I placed 1st in the womens 16-19 age group (which included 23 other 16-19 year olds, I promise i’m not the only one LOL) With a time of 21:51 which means my pace was 7:03

Hannah placed 6th in the 16 & under age group (which included 38 other runners) With a time of 28:03 which means that her pace was 9:03

NOTES: Hannah and I both agree that we could have done better if the crowds weren’t so … crowded. But we BOTH had a blast! We have 4 more 5k/10k races coming up this and next month. CANNOT WAIT 🙂 🙂

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Yesterday (Saturday) was my much anticipated half marathon. Yesterday was frigid. Yesterday was totally awesome!

I met up with Jimmy’s uncle, a dad who used to go to my church, and a friend that I graduated with. Hannah also started the race with us (but she did the 5k-and rocked it!) 2,500 people were running so it took about a minute and a half to even cross the starting line!

It was good to get running because I knew I would warm up. The first 3 miles were crowded but enjoyable because everyone was so happy. By the 6th mile the crowds were still pretty big, but I got to loop through and see Jimmy, my mom, and a few other adults!

I’m the one waving.. like a freak with my crazy colored clothes and high socks 🙂 HI 🙂

The race was in a pretty park, which made the scenery for the run quite nice and the hills weren’t bad at all!

After 6 miles, the race started to fly by… I was thinking about how sad I was that it was already almost over because I had been looking forward to it for so long.

My hands were numb pretty much the whole race but everything else was toasty and warm. I kept thinking about what I would have for lunch .. I felt like Cait!

The last few miles were slow. I kept thinking I was closer than I was so I ran faster so I would finish faster (duh?), the crowds had finally thinned out. I almost forgot to get my medal after because I saw Jimmy and gave him a big bear hug!

I didn’t stay for the awards ceremony because I was frozen solid. And I wanted a cookie. So Jimmy and I peaced out!

Results:

  ID#  PLACE PLACE          FINISHER             TIME      TIME    PACE
Women 15 - 19
  365   104    1  Allie Smith, 18, Pittsburgh, PA 1:47:10    1:46:16  8:07

I know I could have done better (even in the cold) but it was so crowded and I enjoyed myself, so I’m happy with my time.

Let the road racing season begin!!