Denver Rock’n’Roll Half Marathon!

Believe me when I tell you everything about yesterday was pure perfection.

I think it was in part due to Saturday’s preparations, which included a vegan pizza creation with hummus/curry/nutritional yeast cheese.  It was divine!

Lunch was followed by shopping with my mom and sister.  I was mostly excited about the running outfit I bought but we’ll get to that later 🙂

The family reunited later for dinner at Carrabba’s.  Joey and I needed to load up on carbs!

I can’t believe how well I slept considering how excited I was but I fell asleep right after 10, woohoo and then I jumped right out of bed when my alarm went off at 5!  Even after all that carb consumption I woke up hungry so I gobbled up a piece of toast with jelly and made myself a GM to drink in the car on the way to the race.

It was smooth sailing till we hit traffic around 6:20 and then I started to get nervous considering the race started at 6:55 and we had a mile walk from the parking lot to the start line.

We ended up being slightly late.  We started with corral 9 and were supposed to start with corral 8 but I didn’t mind.

We started out nice and slow 🙂  It felt good to get moving so we could warm up — the sun hadn’t even risen yet!

Honestly, I felt good the entire time!  The sun came out and the weather was perfect.  Plus the course was flat, except for one hill maybe and we got to see lots of great Denver sites like the Museum of Nature and Science, Coors Field, the zoo and city park.  It was wonderful.

Races are just so exciting.  I love all the spectators and cheerleaders and bands 🙂  It makes running 13.1 miles so so enjoyable.

I drank cytomax and water a few times and had one starburst.  Joey gladly ate the rest.

At one point I got confused and had to ask, “When we pass the mile signs does that mean we just finished that mile or that we’re about to start it?”

The miles flew by and once we got to the mile 12 sign it was all downhill.  Literally and figuratively, that is.

With the finish line in sight I turned to Joey and said, “Ready to sprint?”  I gave it my all and we crossed the finish 🙂  Joey gave me the biggest hug, I think he was really proud of the both of us.  As was I!

We were so excited that Joey forgot to stop the Garmin, oops!  We estimated that our final time was 2:08 and I’m considering that official since we stopped once between mile 7 and 8 for a bathroom break and our race time will include the time it took to stop.  I don’t count this as part of my racing time.

These were our splits according to the Garmin:

• 10:00
• 9:59
• 9:57
• 10:02
• 9:50
• 9:43
• 9:41
• 9:34
• 9:31
• 9:17
• 9:38
• 9:31
• 8:50
• And who knows how long our last .10 miles was!

We didn’t even notice our families and friends at the finish but they got lots of great pictures 🙂

Apparently the marathon winner came in right before us.  He’s soooo fast!!!!

Can you spot us?? I’m in my new hot pink running shirt and black capri pants, both of which are new and so comfortable.  I can’t believe I didn’t have ANY chaffing and my blisters were completely fine!!!  This has never happened on a long run!  Not that I’m complaining 😛

Had to take a picture with our post-race freebies

Can’t wait to try the granola!

Then it was off to breakfast.  I’ve heard such good things about Snooze and since we were already it Denver there seemed no better post-race re-fueling choice.  Then there was an hour and a half wait…

I don’t know how I made it through the wait — I was STARVING — but somehow I did and the flight of pancakes was SO worth it!!

Snooze offers a variety of creative pancake options (as well as good old buttermilk) or you can order a flight and choose 3 kinds.  Obviously I had to try this!

I got an Icabod Crane, a sweet potato and a blueberry with lemon currant.  The Icabod was by far my favorite!  Quinoa and corn pancake topped with pumpkin sauce, candied pumpkin seeds and maple syrup.

OH.MY.GOD.YUM.

Joey also managed to spare a bite of his burrito, which may have been the biggest breakfast burrito I’ve ever seen!

He ate the entire thing.  Oh and half that order of root beer float french toast in the background too.  That boy can eat!

I was so tired when we got home and all I really wanted to do was take a nap but I rallied and instead I took a shower, finished my paper and went grocery shopping.  Grocery shopping was all I got crossed off my list from Saturday, and I may have even skipped that task if I wasn’t promised a Chipotle burrito on the way home from the store 🙂

Don’t worry, I ate the entire thing and walked laid around with a food baby for the rest of the night.

I got 9 wonderful, interrupted hours of sleep and woke up feeling rested and suprisingly not that sore!

I have limited homework so it should be a lovely week.  I am totally floating on a cloud today 😀

HAPPY MONDAY!