*Overall is female only*

I signed up for this simply as a distance to look forward to/train for. So, I didn't taper and actually added an extra gym session during the week prior. Although I did ask to "not kill my legs" during the Thursday workout.

This race can be VERY cold, so I was super lucky this year. Above freezing, not much wind, although gray and dreary. I met my friend Leslie and we jumped in line at the start, very close to start time. We accidentally started with the half marathoners, not knowing that our start was 5 mins later. Oops! We did have the results fixed, but I enjoyed seeing that sub-hour time for a few days :) Anyway, the race has a LOOOOONG uphill in the first mile or so (from lower town area up Kellogg), make a loop around Rice park, then down to Shepard road for an out/back. The Shepard Rd part was so boring. I would have quit if I was doing the half just out sheer indifference. The hill from Shepard back up to Kellogg was STEEP! Walked that one. Then back down Kellogg, sadly, only to have a little of a climb to the finish. I was pretty much over it by 5 miles. I did log 6.4 miles, which may have been due to the tall building/satellite, plus a few sloppy turns. I can't say I paid any attention to the tangents.

While I would love to be faster, I did what I did and I have to remind myself this was just one step in the year towards my first marathon.

The race organization was super awesome. For that fact, I would do this race again. Food and giveaways afterwards were really nice, super nice mug and shirt, plus free attached climate controlled parking! Amazing! If you did this when the weather was tough (most years), being able to mill around inside is a huge advantage.