Race Report Huntsville Half

    I made a last minute decision at the Huntsville Half Marathon to run the whole race stride for stride with my husband instead of racing. He has not pinned on a bib number and lined up for a race in a long time. I truly wanted his company along the rolling hills on the double looped course. When we run together I feel so much joy and happiness and it reminds me of when I first started running. He has always given me his help and support in my running. 

    The day could not have been any nicer. We had beautiful weather with cooler temperatures at the start, tons of volunteers cheering and the young kids at the aid stations trying to hand out the most water without spilling a drop. There are plenty of hills up and down on this course. The start/finish line is located on a downhill, a nice way to start and especially finish. 

     One of the great moments of the day happened passing through mile 11. We were running past one of the Huntsville State Prison units, on an old cobblestone street at the main entrance of the building and the Saturday morning shift change was about to happen. The employees were standing in line outside on the sidewalk waiting to enter. We came around the corner of the building, being careful not to trip on the uneven cobblestones, but still trying to look like we were running a confident solid finishing pace. I also need to mention we were the only runners there at that moment. The employees started giving us a huge round of applause and cheering us on. Wow, what a reception and quite unexpected. I was completely taken off guard by all their enthusiasm so early in the morning. So after waving and taking our Thank You bows I had  to ask them '' is this the line to get a good cup of coffee?'' There was plenty of laughter so I hope my attempt at some comedy helped to start their long day with a smile. Good times, I love running and sharing laughter. We had another funny moment along the way as we were climbing the last big hill at mile 12. We were just trying to push through and one of us was looking a little rough at this point. As we got to the top of the last long hill a young lady who was passing out water at the aid station complimented me on being a great 'daughter', running with and helping 'My Father' finish the race. Oops! I got such a great laugh out of that and hubby was to tired to correct her so he just mumbled a few words under his breath then smiled all the way to the finish.

   We finished our half marathon in  2:25 enough to get my husband a 4th place finish in his 'old man' age group while I took home a 6th in my age group. 

  I know the Huntsville Half  Marathon race was 3 weeks ago. Sorry for the delayed report. Life sometimes gets in the way of blogging. This morning though I went out for a 26.2 mile run in honor of my friends running the NYC Marathon today. It looks very cold and windy. Good Luck!!