I simply do not have the words to describe the feeling of visiting the home of your best friend since kindergarten, walking into her living room, and seeing all of your children piled up on the floor, on couches and chairs, watching a movie together.
Or the six of you sitting together at her kitchen table, eating supper together and laughing at a shared joke. Or when your son tells you that he and your best friend's son have exchanged Skype IDs and e-mail addresses so they can visit online.
There's no way I could have imagined the joy that I'd get out of something like that when Michele and I began our friendship a zillion years ago, but it's there. Oh, it's there.
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So...the Cowtown Half-Marathon in Fort Worth.
I feel like I finally got a race where everything was perfect for me:
The weather could not have been better. Sunny and clear. A bit cold when we were waiting around for the race to begin, but once it started, I was so happy for the cold weather (and I even warmed up enough midway through the race that had I better abs or less shame, I would have taken off my shirt and finished in just a sports bra).
The course was 100-percent beautiful. We wound through some parks, the famous Fort Worth Stockyards, and the amazing downtown area.
The medal is probably my favorite of all my medals. There's just something about it (maybe the fact that it could be used as a weapon if necessary...):
There were two shirts -- one participant and one finisher. I like that. For the cost of these larger races, two shirts are always welcome. (I got two at the White Rock Marathon; I just got one at the Rock N Roll.)
Everyone I encountered, from the police officers working the event to the volunteers helping out to the runners to the spectators cheering us on, was so nice and helpful. On Saturday, when our sons were running the kids' 5K, Michele and I found ourselves a little lost and wandered up to a police officer. He helped us get back on track, and when we got a little lost again, another police officer helped us.
Right before I crossed the finish line, a man dressed in a cow costume (complete with udders, of course) sped up and finished right before me. Yes, that's right: A man in a cow costume beat me.
The whole experience could not have been better. I'm seriously considering running it again next year.
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I finished in 2 hours, 13 minutes and 19 seconds. Not my best half-marathon time -- that was in The Gusher last year -- but still fair. I was 185th out of 518 woman in my age group. The average time for the half-marathon was 2 hours, 19 minutes and some-odd seconds, so I beat that, too. And, out of 6,870 runners in the half, I came in at No. 3,335.
I was anxious about my performance in this race. My training got messed up a bit with my bout with a lingering stomach bug. I still have some feelings of failure because of what happened at the San Antonio Rock N Roll Marathon. And I had my kids with me and traveling with kids always takes a little more out of you than normal.
But somehow I managed. Next race up is The Gusher Half-Marathon in two weeks!
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