Shiny New Half PR!

It was a great morning to run today!  According to the weather forecast, it was supposed to be about 47 at 8:00, and 55 by 10:00.  Very sunny and bright.  Standing at the starting line, I realized I was overdressed.  I was wearing shorts, a singlet, gloves, arm warmers, an ear band, and a cap. 

I was back to the arm warmers issue I had a month ago.  I like my current arm warmers so much, I really don't want to ever pitch them in a race.  I had no idea what to do at the start.  I thought about leaving them in a tree, but the finish line was about a quarter mile away and I didn't know how easy it would be to get back there.  Plus, I didn't want someone to pee on them. 

I tied my arm warmers and ear band together and asked a woman on the sidelines (who wasn't runnning based on what she was wearing) if she would be so kind as to take the little bundle to the Run On/New Balance red tent over near the start anytime in the next couple hours.  She said she would (and she did!). 

So that left me in shorts, a singlet, gloves and a cap.  And it was just right.  I lined up with Adam and several weekday training buddies. 

Back to yesterday for a second.  Adam and I spent a lot of the day relaxing, sleeping in, working on a puzzle, etc.  But we spent a chunk of the afternoon at the Arboretum, a Dallas flower park on the lake, along with my cousin, his wife and her mother and the 3 kids.  My cousin was planning to sign up for the race, but when we called the running store at about 4:15, there were apparently only a handful of bibs left.  So he and I left everyone else at the arboretum and flew to the store as fast as we could.  He got registered, then we went back to find them.

Anyway, this morning I realized just how fast my cousin is.  He went out with the speediest of the runners.  Adam and I didn't even line up with him.  Our first mile was too fast, and the pattern continued, but we were feeling pretty good. 

By about mile 7, Adam started to pull ahead of me, but I still felt like I was doing pretty well.  I ran 7-12 all within a 10 second window for each mile.  But then I ran as hard as I could for the last 1.1 miles, trying to catch up to Adam, who had never really been out of sight. 

8 seconds.  He beat me by 8 lousy seconds!  Oh well, no complaints really.  I was happy he felt good since he hasn't run much since MTCM. 

Joy was a couple minutes in front of us, other friends were even futher ahead.  My cousin John placed 12th or so overall, with a crazy fast time of 1:17 and change.  We all met up and walked around a little (NOT ENOUGH).  We waited for his age group award (he decided he'd rather put his arm around a cheerleader than hold half his award, haha):

Then we went to brunch at Cafe Brazil, where we met up with his wife and about 10 other good running friends of mine.  Pretty much everyone had enjoyed a great race, and while we were sitting there and my french toast was put in front of me, I had the clear thought that it was one of the happiest moments of my life. 

I wouldn't say it rivals my wedding day or my bridal shower day, or perhaps several other wonderful days, but it's the best in recent memory, and the first time in quite some time that I recognized a perfect moment while I was in it.  Happy!