Daniel's FIRST Half-Marathon

This past Sunday, May 1st, Daniel ran the longest distance of his entire life! He ran his very first Half-Marathon of 13.1 miles!!!

We really weren't sure if Daniel would be able to run, because last week his achilles started causing him a lot of pain, and he wasn't able to run more than a few miles before needing to stop. He RICE'd it all week and did a quick mile run on Saturday to test it out. He felt pretty good so we woke up at 4:45 am on Sunday and headed downtown!

It was pouring down rain.

It rained HARD the entire day.

Here's Daniel still happy about getting ready to run in pouring down rain.

You can't really see it, but his bib says "Nomad Boy."

The race was delayed 30 minutes due to lightning in the area. So we hung out in the rain. Did i mention it was cold????? We could barely feel our hands.

I didn't run. I'll explain more on that later.....

Here's the starting line!

And they're off! There were 25,000 runners!!! It took Daniel almost 12 minutes to get from the starting corral to the official start line. PTL for chip timing, ha!

There he is....lookin' good!!!

I then walked back 20 minutes to the car to wait. While i love Daniel, standing in rain for 2+ hours in the COLD is not my idea of a good time. I had extra clothes (since we're moving) in the trunk, so i changed my soaking wet jeans. (I ended up changing clothes 3 times that morning due to the rain).

I headed out to see him finish! I was SOOO proud to watch him come across that finish line! I couldn't believe how well he did considering the weather, cold, and everything. He finished in 2:28. It would've been 2:20, but there was an 8 minute wait for bathrooms at mile 8. His pace was less than 11 minute/miles. In rain and cold conditions!!! He rocked his first half!!!!!

Here's his very well-earned medal!!!

All i keep hearing the last few days is "I want to do another half!" I can't wait to run another half! (i think i've created a monster)

i am SO SO SO proud of Daniel, not only for accomplishing an amazing run, but for doing it in the worst of conditions at an amazing pace!!! Can't wait for the next race!!

love

laura