After the Race of the Dead, I spent the rest of the day in Chicago at the conference I was in town for. Normally, I would stay through Sunday, and take in more of one of my favorite cities. However this weekend, I needed to get back home for my first 1/2 Marathon - The Battleship Half Marathon.
My flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30PM from O'hare to Wilmington with a layover in Charlotte. If you're not familiar with Wlmington, I'm not surprised. It's a very small airport. Very few direct flights. The parking lot for the airport isn't much bigger than a typical grocery store parking lot. No parking deck at this airport.
Back to the flight- the flight from ORD to CLT went off without a hitch. Actually arrived 20 minutes early. Normally this would be a great opportunity to catch an earlier flight home. If 'home' this time wasn't Wilmington, maybe. There were no earlier flights to ILM. In fact, I think it was the 2nd of 2 flights all day. This was already a late flight considering my first half was the next morning at 8 AM. To add insult to injury we were delayed over an hour while seated on the plane waiting for a co-pilot. After arriving at my hotel around 1AM, I quickly got to bed with great anticipation for an early morning run.
My first half marathon...
I've run a 1/2 before, just on my on course. See an earlier post for more on that. This was special, I was going to run a 'real' half marathon! Not only that, my great support system was there too.
Running with me - my wife, sister, and my brother-in-law. In the crowd - my mom, my brother-in-law, my nephew, and my youngest son.
Although, much credit too my co-runners - much more to my cheerleaders. Running is a terrible spectator sport and it was cold.
I must say, I was really excited to get this started. That sounds crazy to me. I used to make fun of my wife for wanting to run. I would say things like - 'if you ever see me running, somebody is chasing me'. So this excitement was exhilarating.
My goal was to finish in less than 2 hours. Unfortunately, I failed. My time - 2 hours and 29 seconds. DAMN!! 29 seconds!!!!! Next time, I'll pay better attention to the clock.
That being said, it was one of the most rewarding athletic achievements I've ever accomplished. I'm still a little giddy thinking about running that far with a pretty decent pace.
Here's my running team, after the race...
And my awesome medal...
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