Half Marathoning!

And done.  Thank you Pittsburgh for providing a wonderful venue for a race, and a very well-organized one at that.  They've always done a great job in the past, and this year was no exception.

The weather was cool, refreshing and clear, with no rain!  Perfect running weather.

We got up at 5am, hoping to be out of the house by 525 to pick up Oriana and Amanda.  Of course, as usual, we were running late and this meant we got downtown JUST after the 6am closing time for the downtown garages.  Then, we got barricaded in the race course!  So we ended up parking at a random condo complex in Lawrenceville and walking down Penn Avenue and then Liberty Avenue to the race start.  We were pretty sure we weren't gonna get towed....since no one could get in OR out!!!

Pre-race photo op with the dragon!

Amanda, our very good friend who agreed to be our dragon-sitter

Posing with Oriana, our race buddy.

Walking through the Strip into downtown.

Luckily, since the race starts down Liberty Avenue this meant we got to see the wheelchair start (including one blind man who was running with a seeing-eye runner), always inspirational!!!  These are people who could be inhibited by their disabilities, but who instead choose to overcome them.  Truly motivational!  They make anyone with two good working legs feel happy to be alive and running.  And they remind us of all the possibilities.

We also were late enough to see the elite start, also inspiring!  Lots of REALLY fast runners, with big dreams.  Really cool!

If you squint hard you can see a bunch of skinny (mostly) black people behind the truck.  Those are the elites!

We continued towards the start line as the subsequent runner corrals marched towards it from the other direction.  We darted around barricades and through police lines, working our way towards the start line!   On the fences, people began to leave behind their warmup jackets as they started filing slowly forward to begin their race.

A bit naive if they think it's gonna be there when they get back!!!

We finally passed the start line (backwards) and merged in with the awaiting runners.  We turned around and started shuffling forward with the crowd.  There were thousands of people in front of us, and as it turned out many thousands behind us as well!!!  The sun was starting to come up in front of us and shone through the buildings.

Good luck pre-half-marathon kiss!

The start line!

Almost there!

We were pumped up and ready to go!!  We finally cross the start line and start running!

Look at all those people!

Diego took several photos of us while running - here are a few of the best.

It's such fun to run over the bridges!  Great views of the city!

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Looking good at Mile 10!

Staying strong at Mile 12!

So close to the finish line!

Finally done, looking back at the finish line!!!

Bottom line - Pittsburgh puts together a great race.  Both the half and full marathon courses are fun, well-stocked with fluids and other necessaries, and it's a pleasure to see almost the whole city in one day.

This may have been one of the most fun races I've run.  Despite an IT band that was starting to seize up around mile 4 (it finally gave up and relaxed by mile 12 thank goodness), I just kept plodding along.  Diego stuck with me, and we just really enjoyed the run.  We had a great time.

I hope to actually do the full Pittsburgh marathon again at some point, we'll see how the cards lay.  For now, I'm proud that I can say I did a half marathon 7 months postpartum, while still actively nursing the little man.

Diego and I sincerely appreciate all the friends who donated to our cause!!!  Winston thanks you!  Mugen thanks you too!!!  Someday, (hopefully soon), when things slow down a bit, I am going to get back to running, and I plan to keep using this blog as a forum to chronicle my running victories and epic fails....

Thanks Diego for sticking with me!  For reminding me why.

Thanks to Amanda for dragon-sitting!  I'm glad he was a pretty good baby for you.

Thanks to Oriana for accompanying us as well.  You can never have too many running buddies.

Thanks to all those of you who read my at times lengthy meanderings - you are my true friends.

Keep in touch!  Don't let Miami swallow me whole!