I got worried when we arrived at the expo center for packet pickup and they were selling shirts that said, "Flat is for Sissies." I was like, "Mercy, I knew the course was a bit hilly, but just how hilly is it!?!" So we drove the course out, and as promised it was indeed very hilly. I've NEVER trained on hills! (my bad) At this point I was resigned to just run my best and forget about trying to pace for a goal. I figured that course was going to kick my behind.

There was a MASSIVE crowd. I had NO IDEA it would be like that. We could not even get to the street to line up, and we started too far back from our pace group. It took 3:04 min to even get to the start line, and another 10 min of moving quite slow and dodging people to get to where it opened up enough to run at pace.

But then it was great. My pace came easy and the experience was FUN! There were a LOT of spectators out cheering us on and holding out there hands for a hand slap.

I held steady up until mile 10. When I saw the clock, I thought just maybe I could make that 2 hour mark if I kicked it up a notch. So the last 3 miles I pushed harder. Coming into the finish area I saw the clock time had just gone over 2 hours but my chip time was 1:57:47!!!

Train on hills! And place myself in the proper pace group so that I'm not held back for so long at the beginning of the race.

Walked it off.


The hills were not nearly so bad as I thought they were going to be. I don't think I could have done much better even if I had trained on hills. But I know hill training must be done.


This was a super FUN RACE! It's hilly, but suprisingly doable. Beautiful route and lots of spectator support. If it fits my schedule, I may do the full marathon next year!