AlanandVal

13.1, check!

Today was our much anticipated first attempt at a half marathon. We have been training for 3 months and today was the day to make it all pay off.
The event was the ING Georgia Marathon, here in Atlanta, held downtown at Centennial Olympic Park. The race started at 7:04 am, which meant we were up at 5 am, eating, stretching and simply waking up enough to run! We started before the sun came up and were at about mile 4 by the time the sun made a true appearance on the day. We ran through downtown, the historic MLK Jr. district, Poncey-Highland, Grant Park, Inman Park, The Highlands, Piedmont Park, Midtown, Georgia Tech and back to downtown. People all throughout the course had set up cheering stations, with music, signs and lots of yelling and clapping. It was great to see such support from everyone watching.
As we made our way through Georgia Tech (~mile 11) the first full marathon runners passed us. With motorcycle police clearing a lane for them they flew by everyone and despite the exhaustion we all cheered like we were standing on the sidelines watching them run!
We made it back to the finish line as the time clock showed 2:35 since the first runner started. We started in group 5, approximately 5 minutes after the first group, putting us right at our goal time of 2.5 hours. After getting our medals and heat wraps, we met up with Alan's parents and the Littles. We spent a little while taking pictures, eating snacks and telling them about our experience. Everyone headed back to our place to rest before heading to lunch. It was an amazing day and an awesome experience for us both. We may be exhausted and SORE tonight but we are already talking about our next events. Stay tuned, we will be posting on those soon!
Below are a couple of pictures from the day.

Yes, it was this dark when we started!


There we go, crossing the finish line: (I have a green jacket on and Alan is on my right)

We did it!
Maya and Devin checking to my pulse to see if I am still alive:
The only visible injury of the day, poor Alan!
We want the thank Mom and Dad Reed for braving a cold and early morning with us. They were troppers! Getting up at 5 am to stand in the dark and cold while they waited two and a half hours to see us cross the finish line. We also want to thank all four Little's for being there to join Mom and Dad Reed in cheering us across the finish line. It was amazing to have run that far and hear people screaming your name as you got to the end. Having them all there meant a lot to us and made our day even more special and memorable.