Oh Yes. I. Did.

Hellooooooooo, Race Fans!! I'm elated and exhausted all at the same time!! Today's Rock'n'Roll event was AWESOME!! By far, this was my most favorite Half from beginning to end from the event itself to the route to my personal performance!!

As you well know, I wasn’t counting on any particular time, but I’m still happy to report my outcome beat my Half best time by a minute. Hooray! (The report you receive, by the way, gives you your 5K and 10K benchmark times, and my 5K was about two minutes slower than I usually go, so see how the universe put itself back in balance there?!) I could feel the time possibility of along the way today, so it was great to get the confirmation!! To be perfectly honest, I knew I was going to be happy with the outcome no matter what as I left everything I had along that route.

Picture taken at the finish before knowing
the official time!! I just loved the new
bling and how awesome that run was!

Before I present this as though I feel I had total control of the outcome, I have to say that while I was in complete control of my own run, I had to have a great week leading up to the run to have the freedom of control. Today, all systems in all places were firing just right: weather; issues during the past week that did or did not present themselves draining my mental capacity; route; how training went: no one making me mad this past week, etc. All systems need to work together, and, it's not easy to align those. Frankly, they're not all in my control. Therefore, I'm totally not tied to time.

Here's a fun story about time, though ... So, there I was at the Expo when one of the vendors wanted to show me some gadgets and whatnot that help keep you on pace. I didn't really want to talk to her about it, but their table had a bowl of Halloween candy on it, and I wanted the Pit Crew kids to have a piece. So, I thought it polite to talk to her a little bit instead of just taking the candy and running. (Totally true.) Okay, so the very excited-about-time woman said to me, "So, what's your pace goal?" to which I responded, "I don't have one."

Silence. And, confusion.

After a few seconds of us just looking at each other, she rephrased: "Well, what's your finish goal?" (Like I didn't get the mathematical concept that was about to be hurled at me?) I replied, "Just by finishing, I win. I am an awesome jogger, and I like it like that." She was done with me. Done. No more talking. At all. That was cool, though, because the kids already picked out their piece of candy. I followed by getting one for me and for Aaron.

Speaking of the Crew, allow me to share some of my favorite pics from today:

Hugs and kisses immediately following crossing the finish!

More hugs and kisses! (The lady back there looks like she
wants someone to hug! I think we all did!)

And, of course, my favorite Crew!

More event recap tomorrow!! There were lots of great sites along the route as well as fun things to show from the Expo! Stay tuned, and start your week off feeling like a Rock Star!!