2011 Country Music Half Marathon

Mission Accomplished!  Connie and I have been training and training and training.... and it's finally over!  On Thursday, we left for Nashville - around 5am.  It's about an 8 hour drive... But it went by fast!  My AMAZING and generous neighbor Lisa let us stay in her unbelievable condo in Nashville... It was pretty high class and fancy!  We were really centrally located so it made it really easy to navigate around his very musical city!  On Thursday, when we arrived - we went exploring a little and had dinner at Cantina Laredo... yum!  We are both major homebodies so we were glad to come back and relax at the condo!  We watched "The Town" - really good! 

Then, on Friday, we slept in (ha!  830am!) and then we got ready and went out on the town to see what was happening!  We did some shopping around town and then met up with another BFF, Stephenie - who was my college roommate and just moved to Nashville.  We had lunch w/ her at Genghi's Grill... It was so nice to catch up w/ Steph and see her baby Abigail... Then, we headed out for more shopping and then we had dinner at Panera Bread - a light, easy dinner since we didn't want our tummys upset for the big run!  We crashed at the condo and watched "Taken" - Connie hadn't seen it.... I was in bed at 1000pm.... Then, we were up super early on Saturday for race day!!!  We were up at 4am - out the door at 5am.  Parked and waited for shuttles to take us to the start line.... It took until 715am or so before we got to the start line!  The way they scheduled runners - (there were almost 22000 runners!) - was by putting us each in corrals based on our estimated finish time.  So we were in corral 25 but we opted to jump in early and got into corral 19 or 20 (can't remember).... I was just getting impatient waiting!  My nerves were super high - I could not believe I was about to run 13.1 miles!!!  There were SO MANY people... I mean, I knew it was going to be big but I had NO idea it was going to be THAT big!  When we were running, I had to really concentrate to dodge runners.... You don't want to step on anyone but there were just so many people.... I was worried because in all of my training - since Ethan was 4 wks old - I have yet to be able to really train without injury.  I had shin splints - very very bad - and a lingering "runners knee" and around mile 6, I felt my left knee start to hurt.... bad!  I told myself I would only stop at water stations so I would wait til then, grab 2 cups of water and try to walk out that knee pain.... Around mile 9, I was feeling the knee pain in a big way, so I told Connie to run ahead of me since i was running much slower than her.... Then, I had to really play a mental game.  Around mile 11, I got a cramp in my right calf.  I thought to myself - ok, 2 more miles, 2 more miles, 2 more miles!  The energy at this race was incredible!  People were cheering for us the whole way - people were on the sidelines w/ signs and yelling such encouraging things to us... it really helped!  The weather could not have been more perfect - almost no wind, about 55-60 degrees and sunny.  The course was relatively flat too - which was helpful. When my GPS rang out mile 12, I talked myself into running hard.  I just wanted that finish line so bad.... For the last half mile or so, there were SO many people screaming and taking pictures and it was so lively!  It made it easy to just run run run!!!  So by the time I got through that finish, I thought I was dead. Every single joint and muscle hurt.  My knees were on fire - my calf was burning and my shins felt like I took a hammer to them.   After the race, Connie and I came home and showered as fast as we could and we headed to our massage appointments!  After an awesome, much needed massage, we had pedicures and really relaxed and reminisced about what we had accomplished.  :) We had dinner reservations at Maggiano's after and enjoyed some wine and great food!  I was in bed at 830p - I slept like a baby.  I don't think I moved all night.  I woke feeling extremely sore and ready to see my babies!  I've spent as much time as I could today just loving on them.... Such a great experience and I'm so thankful I got to experience with my long long LONGtime friend Connie Jo!  Thanks girl!  We did it!!  Love ya!