Heels and Hills Half Marathon Review

Better late then never!

On May 1st we ran the Heels and Hills Half Marathon.

I did the packet pickup on Friday.  It is at the Holiday Inn.  Traffic flow is goofy, but it is not too bad.  It's a small race and overall ran very well. They give you a nice technical shirt that we all sported on race day.

On Sunday we made our regular Starbucks stop on the way.

Entertaining ourselves in the drive thru with self portraits.

Oh gracious, I have to put up with that attitude for 13.1 miles?

Even little Brittany was not in great spirits.

We got coffee and then ran by to pick up Talia.

Look at all those medals hanging on the wall.

 We got to the race and parked with no issues.  At this point it was super overcast, but no rain.

While waiting in line for the port-a-potty we took more self portraits.  Go figure.

Then we started running into lots of friends!

First Lesley from Racing it Off spotted us.  She said she recognized bitchy Randee's hair.  She was super impressed with our self-portrait taking skills!

Then I saw Becky who I currently work with and Talia used to work with. She rocked the 10K.

Then, OH MY GOSH, I ran into another Becky that I used to work with ages ago. She had no idea who I was until I introduced myself.  Look at little Brittany trying to photo bomb us in the background.

We did a little stretching and it was not long before it was time to start.

Just as we lined up for the start it began to drizzle.

I knew by mile one this race was gonna suck for me.  I was sick the entire week before the run.  I still could not breath on Sunday.  Add in the humidity, wind and rain I had no chance.

There is a U-Turn around mile one.  We saw Talia and Brittany there, and then again around mile 7.

The course is an out and back.  It is almost totally a running trail.  Few spectators.  Very scenic.

Lots of green open space.

It began raining harder around mile 2 and continued to about mile 4.

I'm not sure why I look 8 foot 6 inches tall and hunchback in this picture

Randee was having fun.  I was just trying to breath.

Gloria was awesome enough to stand in the drizzling rain and take pictures of us at the half way point.

Little Brittany.

Talia...work it girl. 

Crackhead happy Randee and me.

Around mile 8 Randee and I split up.  I was not enjoying life.  She was ready to turn up her music and run.

I was determined to finish. But it really was a difficult race for me.  My nostrils were flared 10 miles wide trying to breath the entire time.

Then around mile 11 I noticed Randee and a million other people stopped under a pavilion.

The race had been delayed was the word on the street.  Don't notice the random ladies behind I photographed.

We all stopped for about 5 minutes.  Apparently the police and medical teams wanted everyone to take cover due to an approaching thunderstorm with hail and lightening.

Eventually everyone decided we were better off running it in the last 2 miles and getting to safety.  We just all kind of took off.  I don't think anyone actually gave us an official go ahead.

Finally off the trail and back on the road.  The home stretch.

I did not realize it until the we were literally almost done, but they shortened the route.  By .6 to be exact.  They were trying to get everyone done as quickly as possible.

I was totally confused, but somehow found the energy to push it in to the finish.

They were sending everyone into the parking garage as soon as you finished. 

Brittany and Talia found the breakfast burritos and bananas.

I just wanted water.  For the first time ever, my legs were cramping like crazy as soon as I finished running.  I finally found everyone and was just ready to get home.

Let's all smile and act like that was fun.

All of us ran the shortened route.  Talia was the the first person they diverted.  Everyone in front of her ran the complete 13.1.  Our final results:

Talia - 1:56:16.5

Brittany - 2:11:20.4

Randee - 2:22:08.8

Angie - 2:22:37.6

These times do not take into consideration our time stopped for weather delay.  I paused my Garmin when we were stopped under the pavilion.  It was about two minutes less then the official results.

I was just glad to finish.  Talia was on route to a PR, so that really sucks for her.

Overall the race was good.  Everyone but me had a great time.  My being sick was my issue more so then the weather.

I finished and here is my bling to prove it!

This was the one year anniverary of my first half marathon.  Even with no training for the past month, being sick, humidity, wind and rain I beat my original time by 14 minutes.  Of course this does not take into consideration the .6.  However, I'm pretty confident that I would have still beat my time.

My 4th half marathon is in the books.