It’s my favorite race of the year!  I love the Pleasure Island Bridge Half Marathon for many reasons but most importantly, it’s just a great race with great people.  I run all over the country but it’s nice to run the local races.  I’m so blessed that my community has two great local long run events.

This is my 3rd year running the bridge and I wouldn’t miss it for anything.  The race is scenic and it’s always great to run a bridge, right?

I didn’t have a goal this year because last year I was really sluggish at this race.  I really just wanted to do better and feel stronger than last year.  I thought it was going to be a lot colder than it was so it made me kind of nervous.  But the weather was perfect and I was ready to run.

The bridge is the first half of the race so it’s nice to get it out of the way first.  After that I was able to just really enjoy the run and cheer everyone on.  That’s one of my favorite parts of the race.  I wonder if people ever want me to shut up. I really just enjoy running with everyone and my running group was well represented at the race!  It was pretty awesome.

My race reports are pretty simple because I don’t think people want to read the play by play of the race.  Just know this is one race that you should run every year.  It’s always a great time and the view is something you can’t beat.

And it’s always great to see Iram!

I finished the race in 2:16:01.  The first year I ran this race I ran it in 2:33 and last year I finished in 2.24.  This was definitely an improvement so I’ll take it!

Willie finished the race in 2:37.  I have to take a minute to brag on my husband because I’m so proud of him for sticking with his marathon training.  Coming from a man who said he would never run a race, seeing him stick to his training is a pretty amazing thing.  I’m also glad that he understands the marathon training complaints…

The best part of the race was bringing in Jes and Damien.  Jes has been out of commission for a while and this was kind of like her comeback.   I was just thrilled to see her back out there.  She’s my marathon maniac bestie!  Damien hadn’t run long in a long time and twisted his ankle during the race.  They were both struggling in their own way.  Willie and I were concerned when they didn’t come in so we waited for them.  When they came up the hill the last hill we were so relieved to see them but we knew neither of them were ok, but we ran them in to the finish.  It was just a good moment with great friends!

That just goes to show that you should never give up.  You never finish until you start. You might encounter some problems along the way but that doesn’t mean you have to throw in the towel.  Finish what you started and you’ll always be proud of the end result.

I forgot to take a picture with my lowfat chocolate milk because I chugged it so fast when I was done.  RECOVERY is what keeps me going.  I just ran a marathon two weeks ago and I have another in two weeks and then two more after that so I’m trying to stay strong and moving in the right direction.