I knew it was going to be hard, but I never in my wildest dreams thought it would be THIS hard. Good lord, it took us an hour and a half to get through the first 5k! BRUTAL. To put things in perspective, our finish time for this half marathon (which isn't official, by the way, because we finished so late) is only an hour and a half less than our finish time for our FULL marathon. THAT'S how hard it was. It's the hardest half-marathon I've ever done.
Also, I am just not made for trail races. I tripped over a gazillion roots and rocks; I rolled my ankle; I even FELL because my shoes were totally caked in mud; and I have a big fat blister forming on the inside of my heel. (I had to tighten my shoes extra to deal with the terrain, and my skin did not love that friction.)
But we pushed on, and we finished it. Even if we finished half an hour after the course was supposed to close. (Bless their hearts, there were still tons of volunteers around, and they still gave us medals anyway!) And it was a beautiful, gorgeous day, and everyone on the course was so wonderful and friendly. And there TOTALLY was pumpkin pie at the finish. Brazen, you're still number one!
