Mercedes Half Marathon 2012

I flew up to Birmingham early the day before the race in order to get my packet picked up, secure my hotel room, meet up with mah girl Steph, and have some food with my mom <3   Both of my connecting flights were great, no problemo. The shuttle picked me up at the airport and carried me to the most fabulous hotel.  I stayed at the Hampton Tutwiler Hotel. Beautiful building, old historic, right up my alley!  The attendants were super nice and helpful, but said my room wouldnt be ready until 3pm (almost 3 hours to wait!)  so I moseyed over to the Boutwell Auditorium for the expo.  It was a great expo, everything you would expect!  There was a GREAT sale on sports clothes (50% off!) Lots of food samples (but none to take... booh).  I found a new fuel belt that is PERFECT for me - it is big enough for my phone AND it holds water bottles. (love!!)  Picked up packets for me, Steph and Johnboy.

Steph showed up as I was about finished, so I walked around again with her. Then when we were finished we saw another girl that works with us come in while we were waiting for my mom to get there.  Everyone was navigating with a Garmin - and with the roads closed, it was taking a long time to find your way around. Mom finally shows up and we decided we must have PF Changs  for our carb loading!  So away we went..... and it was so good!   Then we went to cheesecake factory for dessert.... but it was an hour and a half wait - WHAT? No... we got our cakes to go, laughed the entire time (Steph was driving, nuff said...), dropped my mom off, went back to the hotel to figure out how to NOT freeze on race morning when the temps are low twenties but feels like teens.   This is when I discovered that I hadn't put either pair of my race pants in the suitcase!  Terror and horror struck immediately!  What to do?!?!  and finally I had to let Steph take control and guide me to the nearest Target at 8pm the night before the race. Crisis averted!  Thank you Target <3

Have I mentioned our room was nice? I was so super impressed with this hotel.  Comfy beds :)  I slept better than I can remember ever sleeping before a race.  Could be the 2 benedryls that I took before going to sleep since my face was pouring (thanks Bama, glad to be back in Alergy country!).  That's not to say I slept all night, but I got in a few good hours and was so happy about that!   Steph and I both was up before the 5:40 alarm. Keep in mind it was FREEZING, we had no intentions of getting down to the race course until it was time to go!  However, Johnboy was coming and I had to get him his bib so we went down around 6:40 -- and couldnt find him!  The music was pumping and the runners were lining up, you couldn't move! Drama when they are down to 3 minutes and I am still holding John's race bib in my double gloved hand!  Finally, he found us and yet another crisis averted!

We said our parting words and he took off, while me and Steph hung back.  I advised her to stick to her training even though she wanted to keep running after half a mile.  I think at the end, she was glad we did!  We peeled our first layer between mi 1 & 2.   I was glad she talked me out of wearing music because the course was so awesome!  there were a couple of really big hills, filled with smaller hills in between.  I did NOT expect the 'filled with smaller hills' part.  I was glad I was running a slower pace so I could enjoy the course instead of curse the course! haha! It led us though old downtown with huge brick and concrete buildings. One in particular had the windows broken out.  I get sad when I see this. I love old buildings. If I was a millionaire, I would spend my money restoring these beautiful pieces of architecture!

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