Cincy Half Marathon Recap: Foiling our pre-race plans

Ça y est! (That's it!) I've completed my first official half marathon race (and it went pretty darn well)!  Jon and I had meticulously planned things out for the day of the race.  Then it all got foiled. 

First, we stopped at the Under Armour outlet on a whim as we were driving down to Cincinnati and I scored a new pair of my favorite ColdGear tights and a new cold weather running top (see below) and Jon went away with a nice fitted mock top, a matching navy wind breaker, and a great pair of cold weather running tights (see top below).  So, that broke Plan #1: The Get-Up.  I know you aren't supposed to change anything on race day, but it's so cute I couldn't resist (and I have the exact same pair of tights at home).

Look what greeted us in the "guest" bedroom at my mom's!  No, no mints on the pillow, but rather a bowl full of GU samples!

She'd gone to the local running store last week and apparently they were giving out samples.  I've never actually tried GU before (I'm still working my way through my Sport Beans), but I'm excited to try it out.  Also got some Gatorade chews at the Cbus half that people were throwing away, so we'll be trying those too... What do your favorite things to use to fuel?  At least we left them at home and didn't try any new fueling things on race day... One no-no followed!

Plan #2: Get up really early.  In an effort to go potty at home (you know what I'm talking about), Jon and I had planned to get up at 4:30ish and drink some coffee/eat/go back to sleep for a bit.  Great idea... Until we heard my mom moving around and I asked her what time it was and she responded "Oh! You're still here?!? It's 6:30am!"  Panic ensued.  Thankfully, Christina had already picked up our packets and so kindly dropped them off, so at least that wasn't a worry.  

Even the drive was an adventure (as all things are when you're kind of freaking out and tired).  We took the most round-about way to Sawyer Point (Thanks, GPS!) and then had to switch parking places since the machine in the first one only took $1-5 in cash (and I, of course, had a $20).  Not going to lie, I was so upset and flustered that I fed it the $20 almost hoping it'd just take it so we could park.  Instead, it shot back out and we ended up (literally) parking under a bridge nearby. 

We finally made it to the Porta-Potty line by the start.  We were FREEZING.  It wasn't a stellar trip and I was already getting nervous for the race, but we lined up and got all geared up to go.  I have to say, it was pretty cool seeing the 5kers and thinking to myself that this time, that wasn't me!  

Let me just say, 30º is not a lot of degrees.  Despite the coldgear (and my extra tank layered underneath), we were definitely cold little puppies waiting for the gun to go off.

Here's us at the starting line! 

Wide-eyed and bushy-tailed (?) at the start line at 7:45am.  Brr!!!

And then the "gun" went off and we were on our merry, frozen, little way!

Stay tuned for the recap of the actual race!!!