Run and Ride Carowinds Half Marathon

Time for day 2 of my Carowinds race weekend. Today's race began at 7, and since I already had my bib, I showed up at about 6:25 with just enough time to see my friends and hit the potty.



After the anthem and a moment of silence for those we lost on 9-11, I gave my jacket to the hubs and prepared to start the race. I set my watch for 2:1 intervals.
The pacer for the 3 hour half, which was my goal, said she was going to run the first miles faster so that she could take her time in the final miles. This really aggravates me because a pacer should maintain their pace from start to finish. So many people around me were really freaking out because they couldn't keep up in the beginning. She ruined more than a few people's races, I'm sure. It turns out that many of the pacers weren't pacing properly. The 2:15 pacer finished before my friend, who finished in 2:12 or so, and the 2:45 pacer had to walk the last several miles because he started too fast.
Ok, rant over.



Much of the race was the same as yesterday, and it's a double loop, so I took less pics today. After you leave the park, you run through the very hilly camping area. It was breezy and cool, but those hills. Holy heck.



We got to run through the Dino area twice which was nice, and I stopped for a pic during round 2.



Just before mile 9, these 3 were walking towards me and I got out my phone for a pic. Their handler offered to take a pic of all 4 of us.



This was when I started getting tired. I definitely slowed in the last miles, but kept ahead of the pacer. She did pass me at about this time, although she shouldn't have. I think she evened it out by the end, and finished just ahead of me. She probably finished in about 2:58 or 2:59.



The amazing lady on the left finished her 100th marathon this morning. She was about a half mile behind me, so I snapped this pic when I was at mile 12.5 ish.

The finish was fun, they announced my name and city, and Lissa and the hubs took some pics.



A nice enough race, but no official photos because there were no photographers anywhere!