All the details fit to print

Yay! We all get medals! My sister and I at the finish line - I think the most exciting thing about finishing was the cookies at the end. What a _great_ race! I think, perhaps, that I was a little manic for the first 8 miles or so - my sister will tell you that she thought I was going to hurt myself, what with running circles around her, kicking rocks, elbowing her in the shoulder, and so on. Me, I was just excited to be running with my sister, to be finally doing it! As a refresher, the course map is here: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=169262. The "hill" at the turn around point was indeed a decent sized hill, and it followed the road, so it was inclined around the curves - made me feel like a mountain goat going up it. What it was not, however, was a problem. The meager training I did had more hills than the final course, which was to my benefit.

Race day was overcast and chilly, with occasional showers. It had been raining for several days beforehand, and the forecast called for rain on race day as well, with temperatures in the mid-40s. We hoped it would hold out until after the race, but that turned out to be wishful thinking. As we crossed the start line and headed out on our collective adventure, the rain began, and didn't really let up until the last two miles of the race. Fortunately, it was mostly the light misting type variety, which, while it still soaks you, does it in the most gentle and loving way possible. The temperature stayed in the high 40s - to my surprise, the combination of light rain and cool temperatures, along with the long sleeve Under Armour shirt that my sister got for me, actually made for a nice run.

The first 11 miles or so went well, and we were maintaining something close to a 10 minute mile. The last 2 miles, however, sucked - not too surprising, as this was consistent with my training runs. The final quarter mile really sucked, as we ran a circle around the finish line - you could mostly see, and definitely hear the finish for what seemed like an eternity. The cool thing about finishing, though, is that you cross over a chip reader just before the finish line, which allows the announcer to shout out your name and where you're from as you cross the finish line. So as I'm coming into home, he calls out "Chris Re-ah" (no one pronounces it right) "from Arlington......" long pause here "Virginia! You came a long way!". Apparently this is not a destination race after all :)

See the final results here: http://results.racecenter.com/2006/cdahm06.htm#orm. Scroll down to #261. My final time - 2 hours, 14 minutes, 4 seconds - a better time than my 12 mile long run the week before.

Final parting thoughts:

• My sister kicks ass - she got me to sign up and hounded me through it all. Thanks Mel!
• Orange Blast Gu - must be specially formulated to only taste kinda good after running 10 miles. But it works!
• Walking back to the car we passed two people going the other way - they called out to us "hey - it's our pacers!" Apparently we were setting the pace for this couple on the last several miles - for some reason that made me happier than even finishing the race.
• Hotel hot tubs are your friend
• Mel is talking me into the Seattle 1/2 marathon at Thanksgiving...