My first half-Marathon successfully completed!!! I couldn't have done it without my devoted fan, A, who consistently cheered me on from the start of my training, and of course my running mate, Britta! We had an absolute blast of a weekend in Montreal.

A and I woke up early Sat AM and drove (with no traffic) to Canada! We had forgotten our passports...and couldn't remember when that new rule starts. We were already in NH when we thought about it, so we crossed our fingers (A continued dozing) and hoped that we wouldn't be blocked at the border. We weren't. I think A had fun telling border patrol that I was running a half-marathon. We thought it sounded cool, although border patrol didn't seem so interested.

Yes, I'm an international racer :)

We arrived at BR's place before noon and had a full afternoon and evening to sight-see, scope out the race course, pick up our bibs, etc. We checked out Olympic Park and walked through Old Montreal. Britta and I raced some teenage girls on paddleboats and lost miserably. It was ok though. We were conserving our legs for the big race!

Sunday morning's race conditions were perfect! BR and I jumped out of bed, eager to run and took the Metro with the rest of Montreal over to the start. We high fived at every kilometer marking starting with "1 down, 20.1 to go!" and continuing consistently through to "18 down 3.1 to go" and then I got a cramp in my side. Until then I was doing absolutely dandy (despite a major allergic attack in the middle which resulted in major sinus pressure and poofy eyes). I tried my best to run. walked a lot, and hobbled across the finish line!

Thanks Gu!
At 8K we "cheers'd" with our Gu packets and came up with lots of commercial/advertising lines for Gu. (we had a second Gu at 15K, although, I didn't really feel I needed it)

Here are some of them:
-Gu got me through!
-I'm Gu'd to go!

Here are our results:
Britta - 1975 2:16:04.3 6:27 2:12:22.0 4201 B 601/829 68/81 Femmes 24 & - 1:14:59 1:01:06

Me - 2063 2:19:57.9 6:38 2:16:15.2 640/829 128/157 1:14:02 1:05:57

Metadata:
I came in 2,063rd place of the entire race. The race clock said 2 hours 19 minutes and 57 seconds. My average pace was 6min and 38sec per Kilometer. My personal time (according to my chip) was 2 hours 16 mintues and 15 seconds. I came in 640th place out of 829 women. I came in 128th place out of 157 people in my age category. I'm in the female age category of 25 – 29. I ran the first 11K in 1 hour 14 minutes and 2 sections. I ran the second 10.1 K in 1 hour 5 minutes and 57 seconds.

There were 2,396 participants in the half-marathon.

Meanwhile, Em PR'd (again) and won her age category in a 10 mile race on the same day!!!

Tomorrow, I'm off to CA to do my wedding officient duties. Each night, I practice my line..."By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife!". The fireworks always go off in my dreams. I wonder if there'll be fireworks on Sunday....