Area 13.1 2016

I ran the Area 13.1 Half Marathon on Saturday. I did this race back in 2014, but it was in November that year. In case you were wondering, the same course in August is a heck of a lot harder.

The Area 13.1 is a night race in Roswell, GA. It's alien-themed. Get it? Like Roswell, New Mexico? 

The race starts and ends at Riverside Park. There's free parking but you have to find it an available spot in one of the three parking lots. I had to pick up my race packet the day of so I arrived pretty early and had an hour to wait. After many trips to the porta-potties, we lined up and got ready to roll.

The first two miles are on the park trail, but most of the course is on the road. I wore Oiselle Roga shorts, an old C9 by Champion for Target sports bra, Balega Hidden Comfort socks, Brooks Ghost 8s in leopard print, and a FlipBelt.

To be honest, I didn't want to run this race. I had already gone to CrossFit that morning and my friends were at the pool. This was an expensive training run with some lovely volunteers to hand out Gatorade. I told myself to get past mile 5 and then I could stop and use the bathroom and mess around with my music and do whatever else I wanted to do.

And then between miles 5 and 6, I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that said CrossFit Passion, and obviously I asked him if he went there. Erik and I ran the next 6 miles together. We talked about training for marathons, what we love about CrossFit, our diets, and how awesome it is to watch our coaches compete at Regionals. Travis Mayer owns CrossFit Passion and is a Games Athlete, Breona Evans coaches at CrossFit Identity and is going to Carson Jacksonville (?) next year!

Erik's first marathon is on September 11 and he was treating this race as a training run as well. We kept up a solid pace, but we definitely walked the hill at mile 7.

And for some reason, my Garmin thinks I only ran 12.7 miles.

We decided to separate for the final mile because my legs felt pretty good and Erik had a nasty blister. I enjoy cheering for myself and others so that's me hollering on my way into the final stretch.

And this is me hollering at a lady to get off of the course. Ooh, I was so tempted to run right into her.

My time wasn't nearly as good as the first time I ran this race, but I think that's to be expected considering the conditions.