Hello everyone!
The whole purpose of this blog was to document the training and running of my first half marathon. Well, it’s complete!! At 10:16 a.m. today, James and I finished our first half marathon!! It was amazing! I will do a whole recap on the race, but today I wanted to start with a recap of last night and this morning pre-race — the beginning of our half marathon adventure.
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Friday
After work last night around 5 p.m., James and I drove to Lake Geneva, which is about an hour-ish away from Milwaukee. My parents also drove up from Indiana and met us at the hotel where we are all staying — Harbor Shores.
Let me say, Lake Geneva is beautiful. It is a small resort town on a big lake, and it was the cutest little place to walk around. We immediately commented that it would be a good place to take a weekend vacation out of the city this summer.
Beautiful Lake Geneva
After enjoying the lake, we walked a few blocks to the registration area, which was at Celebrations on Wells. We got these great dri-fit t-shirts, as well as a bag full of goodies.
Lake Geneva Half Marathon
Lake Geneva Half Marathon
Celebrations was also hosting an all-you-can eat pasta dinner, which we definitely took advantage of.
Carbo loading
I had two plates that looked exactly like this – spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread.
After we stuffed ourselves, we headed back to the hotel, which was very accommodating for a one night stay.
In our room, we had a king size bed (super soft and comfy), a sitting area, and a little kitchenette to keep our Gatorades and water bottles cold.
All the stuff I brought with me
Once we got back to the room, my parents came over and visited with us while James and I made our playlists (finally).
To be on the the safe side, I made a 2.5 hour playlist and James made a 2.4 hour list. Little did we know we wouldn’t need that much music, but I’ll get to that in my next post 
Highlights from the list included:
Shinedown – Devour <– favorite running song of all time
These were just a few of the songs that got me through. We called it an early night and decided on a 6 a.m. wake up call….
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Saturday
Harbor Shores had a continental breakfast that didn’t have a ton of choices, but since I woke up SO nervous, it’s not like I could have eaten much anyway. But because I knew I had to eat something, I grabbed yogurts, a bagel to split, and some peaches for James and I to share.
Breakfast of Champions
It was hard for me to eat anything because of how nervous I was. I have no idea why I was so nervous. I was accountable only to James and he assured me that even if we had to walk to the whole time, he wouldn’t care; yet, I was still nervous out of my mind.
After snacking on the breakfast, and each of us having a Gu and a Gatorade, we were ready to head out to the race.
Ready to run!
Our wonderful fans
James and I got into starting position about ten minutes before 8 a.m. when the race was set to begin and waited. I was still so so nervous…
Getting ready...
And I’ll get to the race in my next post! Hope I set the scene for you 
Have a wonderful Saturday night!
