Well my January race is knocked out! I had hopes as i frequently checked the 10 day forecast that they would be right and that the warm weather they were predicting that would move in would be here by Sat. No luck! When i got up on Saturday morning it was a chilly 13 degrees. I'm not sure what it got up to by the 11am start but i am pretty sure it was under 20 degrees.
We stayed with family in Topeka and also met up with friends before the race. This picture depicts my husbands personality like none other. Yep that is him, the crazy one in the back! This picture will make me laugh every time i look at it.
My kids all bundled up to come out and watch mommy on such a cold morning
my hubby and me. He saw me off and then the whole group went and ate at Chipotle while we ran and then headed to the finish line when they thought we would be getting close to finishing.
there was a photographer at the top of what i will just call "the nasty hill". Side note story...the guy in the black behind me would sprint full speed down every down hill, i just watched in amazement...i would totally do a face plant! The first half were on paved roads and then the last half we went off pavement onto gravel. 
I found this picture online (thus the wrong year)...this is pretty much what the whole race looked like. This road was around 6-7 miles i believe before turning onto gravel. I was warned by my friend that had run last year not to take out to fast so i didn't, i ran pretty easy the first few miles before the hills really hit and i am so glad i listened because i needed all the energy for those hills and i felt strong on the hills.
I borrowed my brother-in-laws ipod touch. I only have a shuffle (have never used the touch)and he had showed me how it worked but in trying to get it going at the start of the race i couldn't get the volume to turn up and somehow cleared his whole playlist (some who know me well and know how non-technical i am will probably not find this one bit surprising!)...so i never even got any music going, i just tucked my headphones in my shirt and had to pretend i was listening to some rockin music getting me up those hills, ha!Mile 13 marker. My family was waiting to cheer me in. The lady behind me in yellow had ice hanging from her hair in the back...just things you notice when your running on a cold saturday morning...
coming in to the finish
borrowed a garmin forerunner and loved it!! My official time was 2:02:16
Hanging with my girlies! Even though i had been fine running, within 5 minutes of being done i was freezing and couldn't stop shivering!
Really enjoed doing this race and will go back for sure if it works out next year and try to better my time on the hills. I was extremely intimidated going into this one but now i know what to expect for next year!
