Cindy Lou: Madison Mini Marathon

Year 2 of this half marathon for me. However, I wasn't feeling that great about it since I had been so busy with a new house and new puppy. I didn't get to run as much and never quite ran the miles I wanted to for this race.

I was lucky to have two supporters there with me this year. Joshua and our new puppy addition, Lily. We had only had her for 5 days and I thought this event would be a perfect way to get her used to big crowds and she was the center of attention.

We got to the event with plenty of time to warm up so Lily and I jogged down State Street for a bit, her first ever running on a leash with me. The sky was looking grim as I lined up with my group at the starting line. Then they announced a rain delay. Great! I was separated from Joshua too. At least I remembered him saying they were going to take a walk along the lake so I headed that way and luckily was about to connect with them.

Good thing too since the storm delay lasted an hour and a half. We ended up sitting underneath an eave to get shielded from the rain. It was a crazy storm too! Thunder and lightening and tons of rain. Luckily, they did not cancel the race. Joshua and I were a bit scared wondering how Lily would deal with the storm but nothing! Didn't even phase her with all the loud noises above us.

They finally called us back to the starting line as it was still lightly raining. By the time we started, it became a steady rain which I didn't mind so much running in it. 3 miles of running in the pouring rain and even though I was glad it stopped, later I wished it was still raining cause I was so hot!

Even though it poured throughout the morning, it eventually stopped and never came back. The last 10 miles were running in the sun. Really, I wished the rain had come back.

I may not have trained very well for this race but I felt extremely good and never walked (always a plus!). 13.1 miles later, I crossed the finish line at 2 hour 5 minutes and 55 seconds, 8 minutes faster than last year! I think the inspiration was Joshua and Lily. I just could not wait to see them, especially since we had just gotten Lily, I didn't want to be away from her long. I was sad I didn't get to see them at the finish line...apparently they got stuck in traffic coming back to the union but I did see them at some point in the race cheering me on.

It took awhile to reconnect but when we did, Lily was so excited to see me. And that was when I got to hear some of Joshua's stories. I guess with Joshua toting a cute chocolate lab puppy around town, he got stopped a lot for all the people wanting to pet her. Especially the ladies. If he was single, he wouldn't have been by the end of the day. Even the guys were giving Joshua props for attracting all the ladies. Joshua says to this day that all he wanted to do was see me race and not have all these people come up to him.

So after hanging out at the Terrace for a bit and enjoying my beer, we headed back to the car. Since we were out on the streets a lot during the storm, Lily became a police officer's new best friend. We passed by this officer on the way to our car and Lily recognized her. I wonder if she would again if we ever saw this officer.

The cutest thing about this day was when Lily passed out in the car ride home. All I wanted to do was cuddle with her and do the same thing. My goal next year is to run under 2 hours, if I train enough.