Mission Accomplished with a PR { personal record }

Saturday morning, I ran the best race I have yet to run in my past few years as a "runner." My ultimate goal was to run the Seattle Rock N Roll Half Marathon in under two hours - I didn't quite make the goal, but came pretty damn close. I completed the most scenic half marathon, I've run to date, in 2:00:47. I ran the entire race with my dear friend Kim (Rothie), but she was able to muster up a little bit of energy at the end and finish ahead of me at 1:59:33. Not only did she beat her goal, but she also did this in two DIFFERENT SHOES! She grabbed two separate shoes Saturday morning and besides for a little pain didn't realize it until Sunday morning - ha! During the last half mile, I ran down the last hill, could see Rothie in the distance in her bright pink shirt and got goosebumps and had a huge smile on my face because I was so excited for her. She is a huge motivator for me and I love that we both share this passion and have a partner to run these races with. The entire race was perfect - excellent course, water stations prepared with water, awesome volunteers, lots and lots of port-o-potties and ideal temperatures. The shuttle service heading from downtown Seattle to start line in Tukwila was a bit rough, but we made it through and got ourselves situated in a good corral.

The two downsides for me was that Steve was unable to make it due to the big move of our house this weekend, which was a perfectly good excuse because it meant for less moving for me AND my shoes. I realized the night before that my shoes are not in any condition for running a mile let alone 13.1 miles. My Asics 2130's have hit the pavement for the last time, but have done me good over the past year.

Rothie and her husband Mike (who finished in an awesome time of 1:42:32)

The scene at the finish line in the north parking lot of Qwest Field
* We spent the entire rest of the weekend with the move - fingers crossed we'll be finished this afternoon - I'll post photos soon *