Haunted Half marathon

When I first showed up at the startline in downtown Kingsport it was 55F, and the skies had opened up and it was absolutely pouring the rain!  I was a little disappointed because I had really been looking forward to this race!  I just kept praying to myself that the rain would taper off, but i decided I wasn't going to let it ruin my fun!  I told brock: "I'm just going to pretend I'm going swimming!"  I just felt bad for my friend Hank Brown who was the RD because the rain was  messing up some of his plans for the race and I knew the poor volunteers would be MISERABLE standing in the rain and cold for 2 hours handing out aid.  However, with in the next hour,  right before the start, believe it or not the rain moved out!!! The cool weather actually made it PERFECT running weather.
 My husband, Brock got some great shots of some runner's in their costumes!

 and my good friend and fierce ultra runner, Beth ran! Here is a picture of her and Dan:o)

 I confess that once the race began.. I went out way too fast. I was really hyped up and feeling good. My pace didn't SEEM that fast, even though I was looking down at my watch and I was seeing "6:30" I went through the first mile at 6:30, and then the second mile at 14:00. I was desperately attempting to put the breaks on but for most of the first half of the race ( until mile 10) I stayed pretty much at 7:30 pace. by mile 10 I was getting a little tired.. so for the last 5k I was in between 8-8:20 pace the entire time.
Here are some shots Brock took of the half way point:

 beth coming through at half way point:

 beth and i both got passed by the guy on a unicycle:

 I felt pretty good during this race. I really didn't "race" per ce, I just kinda ran my own race and tried to maintain my pace, stay focused and not fall apart.  I think it was a good practice/dry run for Richmond.  I made mistakes during this race, that I hopefully I won't replicate for the BIG ONE:oP
 I ended up crossing the line at 1:44.41 I felt it was a good solid effort.. not spectacular.. but a good run for me and my ability.
 here are some shots of the finish:

 and of JJ Jessee's finish. He was dressed as William Wallace:o) and won 3rd in the costume contest!

After the race, we all hung out at the Bus Pit until the awards ceremony and listened to a band. Then post awards ceremony we head over the Kingsport Central Grocery for some good food, and more live music ( which was awesome) We got to hang out with Jim and Suzy Bowers, and Amber ( a friend of beth's who is AWESOME and very entertaining to converse with) I had never hung out in downtown kingsport before and I was very pleasantly  surprised by it. I definitely plan on returning!:o)

Good Luck to all my friends running MMTR next week!!! You guys are going to RAWK it!!:o)

I'm running richmond marathon on the Nov 14th!