Our Barker Bunch: Slow and Steady Won the Race!

Well, at least for me it did! Linda and I finally completed our half marathon last weekend! I was so excited to be done, it was an awesome feeling. Although we were both pretty nervous the day before and the morning of. We had both picked up our packets on Saturday which included a shirt, our race number to pin on our shirts, and our tracking chips to put on our shoes. Sunday morning we got there around 7:30 and there were tons of people! Over 1000 people showed up to run this race. There was the half marathon, the relay, and a kids 1 mile run (called the scary scamper - cute!). People came dressed up in all sorts of things since this was a Halloween themed race. We saw the Jolly Green Giant, a chicken, some bumblebees...very entertaining. Linda and I were in wave 3 of the half marathon runners. Wave 3 = slow people wave :) but that's ok, I wasn't "in it to win it" I was just there to finish. John and my mom also came to cheer us on. (Thanks for getting up so early guys!!) So, the race started, and our wave started about 10 minutes in. And we were off. Linda and I stayed together pretty much the whole time, until about 10.5 miles. She finished shortly after I did. I had no idea that 13.1 miles would be that much harder than 10 which is what we had run the previous week in preparation. I'm sure it didn't help that the last half a mile or so was basically all up hill!

Finally I crossed the finish line at 2 hours and 39 min and 35 seconds. I was so proud that I was able to run the entire thing, not stopping to walk. That was my main goal. So overall it was a very successful race. I'm not sure I'd want to do it again, or if I'd want to try a full marathon (doubtful). But it was a great experience and definitely something to cross off my bucket list!