AthHalf Half Marathon Recap part 3

In case you missed part 1 or part 2 of my race recap, I wrote about the morning leading up to the race and how I did on the run. As I crossed the finish line and stopped my Garmin, I was riding the high of not only achieving a PR but beating my goal of under 2 hours by over 2.5 minutes. I don't remember feeling this tired as I crossed the finish line.
I accepted my finishers medal and a bottle of water from the wonderful volunteers at the finish line and made my way over to the food. At this point I ran into a wall of people and chaos worse than at the start line. One of the volunteers was yelling food to the right and exit to the left. I knew I really needed some fuel so I tried to head to the right. Unfortunately, everyone else was also thinking the same thing. There was only one sidewalk of space to enter and exit the food area so there was a lot of pushing and shoving. I don't mind waiting in line for food but my legs were starting to hurt and I needed to keep moving. Also, I understand being happy about your accomplishment but it would have been nice if people went somewhere else to celebrate and let those of us that wanted food to get to it without having to climb over them. 


As far as the food went, there was plenty to choose from: bagels, bananas, muffins, pizza, smoothies, and many other things I didn't take the time to see because I was trying to get out of the mass of people. I grabbed two quarter pieces of a bagel and a third of a banana (not sure what the point of cutting them up was, I would have liked to have a whole banana and bagel without having to grab a million different pieces) Even the muffins were cut in half, which just seemed weird to me. 


Luckily, I was able to cut through the Tate Student Center and not have to face the mass of people trying to push back past others trying to get food. I was worried about finding my Dad because we hadn't set any definite meeting place for after the race. I headed up to the bridge in hopes that he stayed where he was and luckily found him without a problem. Now came the hard part of walking back to the car, a very steep half mile on tired legs. 

I got a picture with my medal and called my husband to tell him what my time was. He was a little jealous that I had beat his time again but very proud of how I did. (His first half time was 2:19:03, I ran my first a couple of months later in 2:05:39, then he ran his second half in 1:59:21 and once again I have triumphed!) 


We got back to the hotel so I could stretch, roll, and shower. It was when I took my shoes off that I felt how much pain I was experiencing in both of my feet. The injury I had suffered a few weeks back was definitely bothering me but now there was a new pain on the other foot, right in the middle of my instep. Needless to say, I got to hobble around for the rest of the day and Dad said I was walking like an old lady. Then we headed home and I got to eat some delicious leftover Pizza Hut pizza for lunch, yum yum! Do you think it's weird that I had green peppers, black olives, and pineapple on it?

I need to add that I really enjoyed the enthusiasm of the spectators and volunteers. I also loved the massive amount of signs along the course and I am sad I couldn't read all of them without slowing down. Shirtless dude who kept me entertained, thank you! I loved the singing and air drumming immensely.