Not Even Remotely Wordless Wednesday. Back to Back Half Marathons, Part 2

Day two started when the alarm went off at about 4:30 am. Oooouuuuch! Too early! There was no way that I was getting to the start late again, let me tell you that much! I was feeling a little stiff, but I slept fairly well, and was ready to give it a go! We were in the car by about 5:00, and got to the parking lot and parked by about 5:30. We had a race photo meet up at 6:15 so we stayed warm in the car until the last possible second. Oh, notice anything different about my outfit? Let me refresh your memory with a flat mama pic from Friday:

take note of the shirt I actually wore!

 This is what we call a packing FAIL. I packed thought I packed TWO black arm warmers for the race. I only packed one. Luckily, Gigi brought me my IGR gear, which included a long sleeved white tech shirt. Since it was supposed to be cooler on Sunday, I knew I would freeze without the arm warmers, so I wore the new shirt instead!
We took our group pic, stopped at the port potties one last time, and dumped our jackets at gear check. We made it to the start just after the anthem was sung, and within about 10 minutes or so, the Long Branch Half Marathon began!
We lost Eileen at the start, but Gigi, Lisa, and I started off fairly well with a run/walk that had my legs loosening up a bit after a mile or so. My legs were just.so.tired.
After a few miles, Gigi kept going while Lisa and I were still walking, and we lost her. We had been doing well up until that point, but we soon began taking longer walk breaks, and then gave up running altogether and just enjoyed the race.  It became clear, once the marathoners caught up and passed us, that running was no longer an option. We cheered for all of the marathoners, and when we approached the course split, we even got to cheer on our Marathoner friend Danielle as she passed us by!

 We finally turned the last corner, and were soon walking along the ocean!

 This is about where we ran into fellow Half Fanatic Richard, and posed for a picture! He was walking back, I think to find his sister?

We approached the finish not long after, and our friends were waiting for us. Super sweet of them, considering they finished an hour before we did. Oh, wait, I had the car keys. Nahhhh, they would have waited anyway. I have the best running friends, ever!
We collected our medals, our food bag, and went over to the Awards Tent to collect our bonus medals for running in Queens last month!
Group photo time! Can you tell that it was windy!

Half Fanatics, reporting for duty!

Eileen took this awesome pic!

ooops sideways! Weekend bling!

 We took the shuttle back to our car, hightailed it to the hotel for a shower, and went back to the finish to catch the marathoners. Dangit, Danielle was so speedy (She PRd!!!) that she finished as we were driving back! We did find her, and walked with her to pick up her bonus medal. Gigi and Danielle headed home and I went back to the finish to wait for Colleen and Kaseedee to finish!
Waiting......

This dude juggled the entire 26.2 miles, he is almost as cool as Doctor Dribble!

 I epically failed to get a pic of Kaseedee. She took off her jacket, so when she approached I didn't realize it was her in time! FAIL! I did cheer though. I am nice like that!
Oh, and I failed Colleen as well. I did get a sassy pic of her running away though!

 Time to head home! Man oh man was i tired!
All that running and walking paid off, though!

I rarely get above the top 5, or even the top 10!

we are in the center of the Swirl Collage!

So it was an epic fail of a race. I didn't even makes the results page, because the cutoff was 3:15. Athlinks does not recognize that I finished.

BUT

I have the bling to prove that I ran back to back half marathons!

And next year?

The races are a week apart again! Whew!

What race will you be running this weekend?