It has taken me a week but I finally have time to sit down and explain how I spent last Sunday morning. 

The story starts at the beginning of August when Ryan and I got back from our summer travels.  My brother-in-law Paul said that he was signing up for the Denver Half-Marathon in October with a friend.  He wanted to know if I would join.  I had been wanting to do a longer distance race and decided this was the perfect chance.  I signed up but then didn't really change my running/working out schedule much.  Finally, with the race a month away I decided I better at least do a few long runs to get used to the distance and test out some racing enhancements (i.e. fuel belts, HEED, and Clifshots).  They went well but I wasn't sure I had done enough preparation.

Finally, October 19th arrived with a 5:00 wake up call.  Paul and I set off for the capital building in downtown Denver to the start of the race.  The day could not have been more perfect for a long run.  Race time temperature was approximately 45 degrees (warming up to probably 60 by the end of the race), we had sunny skies, and a great course that took us all around downtown, through City Park and Cheesman Park, and back around ending at the capital building. 

Paul finished with a personal best half-marathon time of 1 hour and 37 minutes.  I finished in 1 hour and 52 minutes.  I was satisfied with my first half-marathon time (a little bit fast than my goal) and look forward to doing another one.  I really liked the half-marathon distance and thoroughly enjoyed the race.  Who wants to join me next time?

Here are some pictures taken by our race day cheerleaders:


Paul going in for high fives from the cheering section.


Going so fast I was a blur...


Much more realistic speed.


Post race smiles us...                                          but racing makes our cheering section hungry 
                                                                          (it also included Paul's parents and mine.)