We had our second 1/2 marathon on Saturday!!! we have been slacking in our training since the last one, not running more than 6 miles at a time since. so we were kind of nervous…we were really excited though because the half was being held at the local and very new JW Marriott! they offered us an awesome rate for the night, so we splurged and reserved a room the night of the race.
over the course of our 24 hour stay, i probably took four baths. heavenly.
teehee.
this was the view from our room. isn't is beautiful to just see horizon? it always blows me away how truly big the texas sky is, it just goes onnn and onnn….
we checked in at about 2pm on saturday. the resort is literally a 5 minute drive from our house and is visible from our neighborhood. (it sits up on a hill and its HUGE)
we found a BOM in the nightstand with a bible!!!!
we toured the hotel lobby, picked up our race packets and drank our complimentary hot chocolate. i didn't finish mine, but jon did haha, not the best idea pre-race. jon was stressing me out way bad because he started getting ready like an hour before the race started and i just wanted to lounge and not let my nerves get the best of me. we were mostly nervous because it was 30 degrees outside. maybe that wouldn't sound that bad if the weather had been gradually decreasing over the weeks, but no. it had been 84 degrees the week before. it was quite a severe drop in temperature….
i thought i was really prepared with my running leggings and sweats on bottom, compression shirt, hoodie and windbreaker on top with a beanie. once i started my run i realized that yeah, i was hot, and also the only one wearing sweats on top and bottom and a non-running beanie. amateur.
we stretched inside right before the race started. see those hoards of people? we could all see our breath. it didn't really matter if you were inside or outside, it was so cold!!!
(also look at my socks. while i was stretching i kept getting a glimpse of them and thinking i was really tan. they're just socks. ha.)
the race was awesome!!!!!!! (it was 27 degrees when we finished) i was way bummed out when i started because i realized my nike+ wasn't working and wasn't going to help me during my 13 miles. i left without jon, thinking i'd see him in a few minutes when he passed me. i turned on my music and the stopwatch on my phone (lammeee) and ran for about 3 minutes before jon caught up to me. i turned off my music and we talked for a few minutes. i kept telling him he could go on without me, but he decided to stay and run with me. wow, i can't tell you how great that was for me! running is definitely a mind game and when i was by myself on the last half, my loneliness got the best of me and i struggled the whole race. this time, with jon talking and laughing with me, we were just going out for a casual run together! it made the whole race so much fun. it was pitch black, the trail only illuminated by tiny LED lights. almost the entire run was through the golf course and i kept thinking about how much my dad would love to golf there. the trails were very windy, so when we'd turn around at a bend, you'd look back and see hundreds of little lights running along the trail behind you. it was so pretty. we nearly froze, i remember being so so cold at once point and jon, who is never cold, would casually put his bandana up over his face haha. because of jon, i finished 20 minutes earlier than my last half at 2:26.45!!!!!! i still can't believe it and keep trying to figure out how that time could be wrong, but it isn't. the temperature actually helped me a lot, my body really didn't hurt that much. because it was a night run, i had time to eat and hydrate all day long which was another enormous improvement from the rock'n'roll when i was starving to death! jon and i laughed a lot during the race and it was really fun to hold hands and cross the finish line, he is the best. another great part about the race was….our family came to see us! john, kathy, and melissa (jon's step sister who just moved in with us! with her dog!) came to see us cross the finish line. we finished way earlier than expected and parking was horrible so they didn't see the real thing, but they were there and that's all that matters. we got to show them our room and share our race winning food with them. after they left, we took hot baths/showers and ate until we fell asleep. then we woke up and immediately started eating again.
(if i told you i started eating potato chips first thing in the morning, would you be upset?)
the people at the marriott were all so professional and sweet, it was really great. right before we left for the race, we called the front desk and asked them to turn our bed down while we were running. so when we got back, our bed was prepared for us to fall into it and eat our tiny chocolates they left us! they also gave us complimentary late checkout (1pm) so that we could rest up after the race. that meant we could hot tub when we woke up!
texas is the best, its so fun to live here and love texas like everyone else does.
i thought the picture of the longhorn in our room and the cowhide ottoman was pretty texassy, but i think the enormous scale of the hotel overall was the most texassy of all. i'm not sure these pictures accurately show that, but the ceilings were so high and the light fixtures were gigantic. while jon walked out to the car to bring it around, i sat at the top of these stairs and just looked at the fixtures. i think they were 10 feet from top to bottom.
all in all, it was a fun and exciting weekend!
oh, i forgot to mention this:
we booked the room at a rate of $119 for the night (before taxes and all that jazz). the night before we checked in, we called to get the total for the stay. $189!!! we seriously contemplated not going because it was much more than we were expecting. we have been so excited about staying there and knew it would be very convenient after the cold race to just go up to our room and warm up, so we went for it. we have been saving our change since we got married (along with my tips from when i worked at stouts). we filled up our little tube so we cashed it all in and got $139 out of it!! we planned on paying that with cash and the rest of the stay on our card.
when the guy checked us in and told us the price, our jaws dropped. he said "the total for the room will be $138.93." we did not ask any questions and let him keep his 7 cents!!!! isn't that amazing?? we don't know what happened, but we are very grateful!
