Half Marathon Victory

Above photo: Crossing the Finish Line, just after passing the guy behind and to the right. Copyright 2008 Brightroom (do not copy).

Photo below: My NY buddy and cheerleader, Camelia, on the left; and my NY virtual running buddy, Steve, second from the right. My VA real time running buddy, Butch Proctor is on the far right).
Well, we did it! No injuries in our crew.
Carmen Green, who hails from the Quad Cities, now lives in Harrisonburg, and is a member of our running club, was the second female overall. Way to go, Carmen!
Steve, and another NY friend Camelia (far left) spent a long weekend with me down here in Virginia. They, Butch and I all stayed in Charlottesville for the night. While Butch and Steve talked about sports in their room, I showered, taped my toes and prepped for the race, and chatted with Cam as she watched television. I was wound up, agitated (I hadn't run since Tuesday) and unable to sleep, so Cam gave me a Benadryl -- good for sleeping and for allergies.
At 4:30 I was up, and shortly thereafter made oatmeal in a waterbottle using the lobby microwave. During the night, the sign out front had changed to "No Vacancy." About 5:30 a.m. we headed out, and saw a parking lot full of people in various forms of running gear stretching and loading their cars.
At the starting point, Steve and I found our place in the swarm. It was already in the 50s, low 60s. We stripped off our shirts, and handed them to Cam--Steve opting to run in his "A-shirt" and me in a tank. About 6:15 a.m, Butch ran off. Doing so allowed him to be at miles 3 and about mile 12 to cheer us on. (He had mapped out all of my LSD training miles since the first weekend in February, and ran most of them with me. He is also secretary of the running club.)
Somewhere around miles 3 or 4, I lost Steve.
After the turn around I headed toward the yellow line of the road, hoping to meet him as he approached the U-turn. It wasn't long after before I saw him, "Hey Sis!", he yelled as I yelled, "Hey Bro!" We slapped a high five; and our fellow runners giggled.
I bumped into a marathoner from Ireland, who was taking a break by running a Half. All along the course, spectators cheered and encouraged us on. The scenery was gorgeous -- through the historic downtown, out into the country and down a hill where the mountains loomed ahead in all their splendor and glory.

The last section included a hard pull uphill, but I still managed to cut off a few runners near the finish. I ended with a chip time of 2:01:53, missing my dream goal by just 1:53. I was pleased though, as my goal was 2:10. I also beat George, the researcher and runner, who outran me by about 1 second last week. That put me at 609 out of 1293 Half Marathon finishers, or 47.1% overall. Amongst the women in my age group, I was 6th out of 52, or within the top 11.5%. Steve, my NY running buddy (second from right in the above photo) came in about 2:20. So he, too, did very well indeed. Thanks everyone for your support!
I'm planning to put this event on next year's calendar as well!