Mississippi Blues Marathon and Half-marathon!!!

This morning I woke up to a temperature of 17 and a wind chill of 9. I was a little nervous... The race started at 7:00 a.m. and so Teresa and I didn't get out of the car until about 6:40 a.m. I got a really good parking spot and didn't want to get out of the car. But watching all the people walk by heading to the race got my adrenaline running and I was ready to face the cold.

I did a quick stretch (I had done most of it at my apartment), so I was ready to go. It was so cold... I had never experienced cold like this. But was thankful that I didn't have to stand around to long before the start.

The cold start...

Here we go!

The race started out not so bad, the sun was coming out, and after a few miles I was actually getting warm. But about mile 3, the sun went away and the cold settled in. It was so cold that the Gatorade was slushy. When I tossed my cup on the ground, the water turned to ice. When I run in the cold, my eyes tend to water the first few miles... well my right eye watered the whole time. At one point I looked down at my jacket and there were frozen teardrops!! It was at about mile 7 though 9 that were the worst. It was on the frontage road of Lefleur's Bluff State Park, there was no buffer for the wind and the interstate traffic zipping by didn't help anything. After that, the last 4 miles weren't that bad. They actually went by really fast. Which I was excited about, I was so hungry!

Tina the Icicle

I ended up finishing the race in 2 hours and 52 minutes, my worst half marathon, but I finished! The food was so good at post race tent, they had hot soup, hot pizza, hot chocolate, and cold beer!! It was a great reward after finishing such a brutal race... I think this may be the only time I do the Blues, but I have been known to change my mind.

I thought Teresa was taking a picture so I was making a goofy face for her.... turns out she was making a video. Enjoy!