Friday Five 9.14.2017

Dear Friday, have I mentioned how much I love you? What? I don't say it enough? I know, I will show you all my appreciation by enjoying Friday and joining the Friday Five Link up.

I'm Linking up with the Friday five 2.0 ladies at Fairytales and Fitness and Running on Happy. 

Today's theme is unique running routes, and it sounded like the perfect time to talk about the Bird In Hand Half marathon. Does it feel like I am talking about Bird in Hand too much?  Yes, probably, but it's my blog. I am going to try something different and give you 5 things about the Half Marathon. 

1. The weather turned out to be perfect for running. I trained for heat and humidity, and got sunny, and cool temperatures, it was 48 F (8.8 C) and 56 F (13.33 C) when I finished. I still wore shorts and a tank top, and was so very comfortable the entire race! My only issue was that the shorts chaffed my inner thighs, even though they were not new and I had raced on them before. 

2. The Route was amazing- One of my favorite parts of the BIH Half is the amazing route through the Amish farms and country side. This year, I saw an Amish family working on their farm, like nothing else was going on around them, like there wasn't 2000 people running by their farm. We also ran by lots of corn fields, and by Amish school houses. I regretted not stopping to take pictures, but I had a goal. 

3. The Hot Air balloon launch makes me forget my nerves. I had a terrible time going to sleep, I was nervous that I would get cold, that I hand't trained enough, that I wasn't ready. But as soon as we got to the race, and saw the hot air balloons getting ready to take off, my mind got busy thinking of how beautiful it all looked. 

4. I figured out the new Taylor Swift song- Somewhere between mile 7-10, my mind was starting to play tricks on me. At mile 7, I was convinced that the rest of the race was only 4 more miles. Around mile 8, I realized that my brain forgets how to do basic math after running 5 miles at 9 ish min pace. Somewhere around this is when the new Taylor Swift song came on, and I listened for all the clues, keeping in mind everything I've read and was sure that I have figured out the meaning of the song. Only I can't remember a single thing now. Access to that part of my brain must only be available after running 8 miles. 

5. I had hoped to beat my Half marathon time, until mile 11. I looked at my watch at mile 10, and realized that if I speed up a tiny bit, I could beat my HM time, and I did well for the 1 mile. Then at mile 11, I got really hungry, like debilitatingly hungry. My breakfast was an egg Mcmuffin, and Coffee. My brother said that I should not have juice before a big race, and I listed to him, but I couldn't eat all of my sandwich without my OJ, and only had about half of it. I could barely walk, and running at 8.40 min/ mile was not a possibility. 

I randomly found this picture of myself in Instagram. After I asked, the person who took it send it to me. 

I finished at 2.03 and change, and was very happy to be beaten my time for this course from last year, by a lot. 

I need at least 2 more medals to have a complete horse

Happy Friday!! 

Have you heard about not having OJ before a race? or before any activity? 

Have you ever ridden a hot air balloon? 

I know we all have crazy thoughts during races, can you still do math while running?