2nd Half Marathon of 2010!!!

Chad and I after completing the Prairie Fire Half Marathon in Wichita, KS on 10-10-10. Another goal accomplished!!! Together we have completed two half marathons in a little over 5 months.

Our second half marathon is in the books!!! I finished just short of my original time in Lincoln....just 20 seconds off setting a PR. My official time was 2:08:45 and I again averaged a 9:50 mile pace. Chad did amazing! He had a PR by over 7 minutes and finished with a time of 2:05:30!!! Even though we were just 3 minutes apart in finishing...there were over 200 people in between our finishes! Over 1800 people ran the 1/2 marathon.

Chad walking down to the start of the race as the sun was rising on 10-10-10. Our hotel was literally steps away from the start/finish and all the events to take in after the race.

Chad and I before the 1/2 marathon.

We again lucked out with perfect weather for the race!
It was a great course going thru some very nice old neighborhoods in Wichita as well as the newly renovated old downtown. However, we both agreed that we did not enjoy the sections of the course that were on brick streets....everyone was looking for level strips of concrete to run on!

Striking a silly pose before the race while checking out the finish line.

This race was more of a struggle than my first half marathon experience. I ran most of the race solo and woke up with some tummy issues that seemed to haunt me most of the race (and the rest of the day for that matter.) At one point when I saw the marker for mile 9.....I pretty much hated my life and the thought of going on another 4.1 miles! Needless to say, mind games plagued me most of the race....but thankfully I didn't let my pity party win out and I made it thru just slightly behind my original 1/2 marathon time.

Will there be another 1/2 marathon in my future.....absolutely! However, I believe it will have to wait until 2011. I have been putting off getting a funky toenail removed....and after today, I am ready to be rid of it! I plan to run the KSU Homecoming 5K in a few weeks, the 5 mile Turkey Trot in Kearney, NE and will hopefully crush my first ever 10K time running the December Winterunland in Manhattan.

As I continue to look for new goals and keep running, we will also be cheering on Chad as he trains for a FULL MARATHON (that's 26.2 miles folks) the week before Thanksgiving this year! This is incredible and we will be so proud to see him accomplish his goal of running his 2nd full marathon!