What? There's no Basement in the Alamo??

No -there isn't a basement in the Alamo.  (for all of you Pee Wee Herman fans out there)

After 12 short weeks of training....we made it to the San Antonio Rock n' Roll Half Marathon.

A half-marathon is 13.2 miles.  (not a 5k - to the guy on the plane who sat next to me on the way to Dallas)

I finished in 2:25 - not too great.  That is about 11 minute miles average and I trained for 10 minute miles.  It was so hot outside and I was really slow. (and more hills than I anticipated)  Also, lets face it, I didn't train hard enough.  Not enough long runs and definitely not enough strength training.  Either way - it was really a good time!  I am still a little sore today, mostly my feet and chafe, but I am planning on hitting the treadmill again tomorrow! 

Here is a race re-cap for you:

We started out in South Fort Worth on Saturday morning for breakfast.  My good friends from met up with us and we had a really nice visit, I was happy to spend time with them.  My favorite thing at the Old South Pancake house are their German Pancakes.  (I might have been more excited for the pancakes than the race, but what did you expect?)

We made it into San Antone on Saturday afternoon and went to the Race Expo and picked up our packets.  The expo was really well organized and it went pretty smoothly and we made it through without spending $100's on race gadgets - guaranteed to make you run faster.

We stayed in the Emily Morgan DoubleTree Hotel which is right near the Alamo and the Riverwalk.  Great location and a really cool hotel.

We had dinner at a restaurant called the Iron Cactus and it was delish!  We sat outside, right on the river and couldn't have asked for a better night out with my best Grass Range Gals!

We were good little racers and actually got our race gear ready to go the night before.  All of the running magazines say to do this...I'm not sure if it saved a ton of time for us on race morning, but it was fun to get everything together.  (note the Glide - btw, it worked for only about 6 miles before I completely sweated it off)

Early early the next morning, we made the mile trek to the start line - and I had to use the can.  There were no lines at all and the bathrooms were spotless.  HA!

I work construction and have seen some gross porta potties in my day - but race morning jons are probably some of the grossest that I have seen. Yuck.  They look like such a nice clean bunch - it's weird.

This is our usual before picture - lookin' good on race day.   So happy to go for a little jog and not yet experiencing the pain that 13.2 miles brings.  It was already getting warm outside and I am pretty sure that I started sweating before I even crossed the start line.

We were soaking wet with sweat!  Eek.  It was awesome having Katie there to support us in the race!  Tami and I have ran several races together and haven't had anyone meet us at the finish line before, it was really cool.  Thanks for your support, Katie!

Chocolate Milk is an awesome re-fuel, btw.  They handed it out at the finish line...nice job RnR San Antonio.  They also gave out Fritos! Again, kudos!

Once we made the walk back to the Hotel and rinsed off the gross-ness, we popped the top on a bottle of Champagne!  Thanks a bunch to my cousin Johnna for giving us the BEST CARE PACKAGE EVER!!  She thought of everything!

Finally - quite possibly the best race re-fuel that I have ever had:

God Bless Texas. 

While shuffle jogging through the streets of Old San Antonio, I got a lot of time to think about all of the things that I love about running.  I love the fact that there are all ages, sizes and shapes of people at the races AND I love all of the signs that people make and the support from fellow runners and strangers that you get along the way.  It's a pretty neat feeling.

The only negative I could really think of are the lines to the porta jons on race day...and I can live with that.    (unless I have an emergency 'situation' going on)

Cheers to making the most of it!  Cheers to another 13 miles with a great friend!  Cheers to many many more!