Rock and Roll Dallas Half Marathon Recap Part 3: The RACE!!!

This is the final recap of my Dallas Rock and Roll Half Marathon weekend!   :0)

Part 1:  The Expo
Part 2:  Dallas Adventures

I left out the picture of my yummy pre-race spaghetti dinner!

Looks good, right? :0)

Onto race morning!!!

 

I posted this picture of me on Facebook and had quite a  few hilarious remarks!  “Rock and Roll Dallas, bring it on! You scared?!” :0)  Hehe!

My good friend Heather  took time to remind me how ill-prepared I was for this race.  (Thank you, Heather!)  I wasn’t expecting a cold front to come through (I even checked the weather on Thursday as I was packing and it showed a high of NINETY on Saturday and a high of 80 degrees on Sunday!)!  According to the weather forecast, I had no need of cold-weather clothes, right?!  How wrong was I?!  Very!  Just goes to show you that you should ALWAYS bring along an outfit for every type of weather!

Race morning arrived early and COLD!  Thankfully, my cousin came to my rescue with long sleeve throw-away t-shirts!  Saved!

Confession:  Last year, I heard that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were going to be out before this race.  Imagine my disappointment that I wasn’t there - since I’m such a fan!! After reading their various tweets last year, I vowed that I would run this race this year no matter what!  (Sad, right?!)

We arrived to the race start at 7 a.m. (secretly inside, I was hoping we would make it in time because I knew the DCC would be out at 7 a.m.!).  My cousin and sister in law made a bee-line for the port a potties as I spotted the cheerleaders. I guess you can figure out where I went first (instead of the port-a-potty)….

To watch the Cheerleaders of course!  I watched them dance and they were incredible.  Seriously, I was in awe.  Amazing. I wish I had an ounce of rhythm in my body…unfortunately, I don’t.

The group of girls split up into 6 and 6!

You know what’s sad?  I knew the names of every girl in this group.  Sad, yes, I know…..

The girls danced, then took a short break, then danced again, and took another break, etc.  As we stood there watching, we noticed people going up and taking pictures with different girls.  The security guard made a few passes and I knew that this was my last and only opportunity.  I had NO IDEA (and still don’t know) where the courage came from (at all), but I grabbed my sister in law’s arm and said “Let’s Go!”  We walked around to the back of the group with the intent of taking a picture with Kelise.  Kelsie is in the back row, middle girl in the above picture.  My husband calls me a creeper for this (which I’m NOT at all), but I follow several of these girls on Twitter.  I follow a LOT of people on twitter and that doesn’t mean that I know their every move.  Kelsie is a Christian and she posts uplifting, encouraging tweets every once in a while and I think that’s really cool! 

Ok moving on with my story…we made our way to the back of the group and I called out her name….“Kelsie!”  (Once again, I have NO clue where the courage for this came from!!)  She turned around with a confused look on her face (as if to say “did I just hear my name?!”).  I motioned her over and told her I just wanted a picture.  She kept looking at me like “Do I know you?!”  After we took the picture, instead of saying anything like “I watch your show….I follow you on Twitter, etc…” I said “THANK YOU!” and ran off giggling like a 16 year old. Sad, yes…I am so sad. 

I was SO excited to take this picture.  It made my ENTIRE day, seriously.    I found out later (since apparently I’m a Twitter creeper) that she had a friend running the race…maybe she was thinking “You aren’t my friend!!” when she was giving me those confused looks!  Hah!

I could have stayed and watched them dance all morning but it was time to get into our corrals.  I was incredibly excited and couldn’t believe that I had gathered the courage to step out and do what I did!  Kinda proud of myself! I knew if I hadn’t, I would have regretted it! 

On our way to the corrals, we spotted these guys so we stopped for a picture!

 

We made it to our corral and saw the Susan G. Komen group lining up for the race!  I love races that support good causes! :0)

  

Me, my sister in law, and my cousin ready to run!

The line of people ahead of us…..

 

…and the line of people behind us!

As we were waiting for the race to being, something else surprising happened to me!  A runner came up and asked if I was a blogger!  How awesome!  She ran Rock and Roll New Orleans also and even though we had commented back and forth about meeting up before this race, I never thought I’d find her with all of the people around!  Her name is Tasha and she blogs over at Never Slow Down!  Go check her out!! :0)

Before we knew it, the race began and we were passing the DCC!  These are the girls that were on the other side of the corrals. 

I thought these outfits were quite interesting as well!  :0)

About to cross the Start Line!!!!

We enjoyed the beautiful downtown Dallas scenery!  At this point, I was keeping up with my cousin.  I knew I would fizzle out if I kept her pace so I slowed down my pace and Kayla and I ran together for a while.

First band!

Quite the race outfits!  Hah!

I loved loved loved the scenery along this race.  Even though there were more hills (or inclines) than I liked, I still enjoyed the gorgeous views!

We saw these guys quite a few times throughout the race.  Someone commented “We saw you already” and the guy responded “Yes…and we are still watching!”  Haha!

 

I think my favorite part of the race was this neighborhood.  It included many incredible homes with gorgeous views!  Across the road from these homes was a gorgeous walking path…..benches, azalea bushes, waterfalls….the list goes on and on!

 

Could you imagine having a waterfall across the street from your house?!

This girl was running 4 months pregnant!  Go girl!!!

 

These poor people got rolled!!

Made it half way!

 

I thought this was funny for all the Justin Beiber fans!  Hah!

As we approached Mile 8, I realized that I had to potty…BAD.  I knew where I made my mistake and it made me sad.  Before the race, I SHOULD have gone to the potty but instead, I was completely in awe of the DCC and didn’t want to miss anything by waiting in line to potty. 

Instead, I had to forfeit 2 minutes of my time waiting on one of these to become available.  At least there wasn’t a line!  Oh well….you potty and you move on!

I was still excited about my meeting with a DCC and I kept giggling all race.  Kayla knew what I was laughing at and it made her laugh as well….good times, good times!

Kayla and I ran together until after I came out of the port a potty.  She had a horrible pain in her side and wanted to walk.  I told her to have a good race and I’d see her at the finish line. 

I found the 2:20 pacer guys and decided to stay with them for a while.  That’s where I made my 2nd mistake.  These guys started out after me which meant that I was off from 2:20 by a few minutes, even if I stayed with them until the end. When I realized that, instead of staying with them, I ran ahead to catch up a few minutes.

With the Mile 12 sign!  My traditional race photo!! :0)

Final band!

I LOVED these signs.  It says “When Stamina Runs Out, Inspiration Kicks In!”  How cool!

Passed the Cotton Bowl…

…and Mile 13!  It was here that I realized I wasn’t going to get 2:20.  Oh well, I wasn’t disappointed.  My Half PR for this season was 2:12 and I decided I was satisfied with that!

No use killing myself, even though I did kick it up and sprint for a while to the finish!  It felt AWESOME and after I finished the race, I really felt as if I had worked hard!  Awesome feeling! :0)

Finish Line!!!

All of the Rock and Roll races! 

I took my picture with the Rock and Roll backdrop, then got food!  My favorite was the Marathon Snickers bars!  Awesome! :0)

After I stopped running, I realized how COLD I was!  Seriously…it felt as if it were colder after the race than it was before!

So much for a high of EIGHTY!  Ugh.

Me with my medal!

 

My cousin and I after the race!  She was INCREDIBLE during this race!  She finished in 2:00!!  Go girl!! :0)

This is where the finish line concert was going to be held…but we didn’t stick around for that!  We were FREEEEEEEZING and were ready to take a shower!

   

My wonderful race supporter! :0)  Love my husband!

 

After the race, we showered and changed, then ate lunch at Sweet Tomatoes!  The bag we got at the Expo included coupons for Sweet Tomatoes so we decided to eat there for lunch!  It was extra yummy!

After a yummy lunch! :0)

We made our way to my cousins’ house after we ate to say goodbye!

Once we got on the road, we stopped at Dairy Queen for a much deserved Blizzard!  Yum yum!

This concludes my 3 part Dallas Rock and Roll Half Marathon blog recap!  I hope you’ve enjoyed my journey!  This was also my final Half Marathon of the season….what a beautiful race and a wonderful way to end the season!   Thanks for following along!! :0)