Rock and Roll Dallas Half Marathon

Rise AND shine! 5:20am.

For those of you who know me well, you know this is an absolute ungodly hour for me to get up, yet I was wide awake and ready to run!

I met my MRTT girls at the train station and we were on our way into the city.

These are some of the *bestest* frunners every!

Side note: This was Ampy's (the beauty in the middle) first half marathon!  She *crushed* it.  Sub 2 on her first try!  Luisa (the beauty next to me) also killed it with her first "official" (it's a long story) sub 2!  Marissa & Heather (the beauties on the right side) ran great races as well!

Luisa, Ampy & I made our way to corral 4. Before we knew it, we were up!  Time to run!

Over the years, I have moved up a little bit in corral placement.  Progress!  Year one (2010) I was all the way back in corral 10.  While I may have overestimated my finish time by just a few minutes, I was keeping up with the rest of the corral and managed to stay ahead of the 2 hour pacer for a little while.  A sub two has been my goal for this race the past two years.  I knew it wouldn't happen that day, so I ran this one purely for fun.

I managed to stay below a 9:40min/mile pace for a lot of the first half and only slowed down slightly over the split.  This is good news for me.  Progress and pacing are taking shape.  I have a bad habit, like a lot of runners on fresh legs, of going out to fast.  Rocking a fast first mile of two and then falling apart.  Not this day.  I made sure to stay steady throughout, especially the first 2-3 miles and it paid off.  I finished strong and probably ran more during this race than any in the past six months or so.  It was cold.  It was windy.  But it was fun!

My A goal was 2:10 and to stay <10min/mile.  I hit it.  On the dot.  

Search Results (Search Criteria : Last Name = aden)

OvrPl	Bib	Name	City, State	Time
4215	4209	Jolene Aden	McKinney, TX	02:10:57

9:59.  That counts as <10, right?!

I had a lot of fun and saw a ton of friends along the way.

Two of the Bakers.  They jumped on the same train with us & ran this race as a family.  How cool is that?!  Wife Amy, finished just a few moments later.

The signs are always a fave!

Overall this is one of the funnest (that's a word, right?) races I do all year.  It was my very first half back in 2010 and my introduction to a long road of distance running.  I've had my ups and down throughout, but such is life.  We are always learning; finding ways to improve and better ourselves.

I can't wait to see how long I can keep this particular race streak going.

I'll leave you with this.  

My attempt at the hottie selfie.  I have true respect for the original poster.  This is a difficult task!