1/27/2019-The Town of Celebration Half Marathon




I almost quit this event before I started! Four days before the race, Boyd fell playing softball, sustaining a femoral fracture. Surgery followed. He was still in the hospital on Sunday. Boyd encouraged me to run anyway, but it would be without his presence and support. I decided to do it. But on my way to the hotel Saturday afternoon, I got a flat tire! I waited 3 hours for AAA service. That meant I had to drive 2 hours in the dark on unfamiliar roads. I almost bagged the whole thing! With white knuckles, I drove to the hotel. Too keyed up to sleep, I would have to drive to the race start, again in the dark, plus it was raining-hard. And it was cold, around 50 degrees. I went ahead with it. But not anticipating the satisfaction of finishing. Instead I knew I would feel terrible if I quit without trying
 I finished the race in 3:01:53, 2nd of 3 in my age group, 1,088 out of 1,330 finishers.It was raining, cold and windy the whole way. Considering the weather and my stress level, I wasn't TOO disappointed.
 All in all, it was a really nice race. Celebration started out as a Disney planned community in 1996 and continues as a sparkling clean upscale town.Several miles are on boardwalk/paved trail through scenic Florida vegetation. And area restaurants at the finish provided a gourmet quality finish line buffet. And the SWAG! In addition to the finisher medal, T shirt, and 2nd place age group award, there were more goodies, pictured above. From top to bottom--a cooler, a foil "space blanket", hat, mini towel, restaurant coupons, bottle opener and back pack. I would definitely do this race again, in better weather!

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