Marseille Half-Marathon

Yesterday I ran my ninth half-marathon! As I told you earlier, it was a little iffy if I was going to be able to run the race or not. I was so proud to have run this race especially because I almost couldn't do it!

I did my usual race routine, ate pasta the night before, went to bed early, woke up early, ate a banana, etc. A couple of my friends went to the race with me which made me SO happy. It was so great having them there even though it rained the whole time.

Since it rained all day Saturday and it rained all night the night before the race, the streets were a little bit wet... We came to a standstill at one point because the road was so narrow and it was flooded up ahead. We all waited in line to wade through huge puddles and mud. We were also running under overpasses a lot so the water from the overpasses was running off and we were running through all of the runoff from the overpasses.

 Strange thing about the half - the bibs were made of paper. Just what seemed like regular paper. So my bib started ripping half way through the race because it was so wet. I couldn't lose the bib because it had my time chip in it. That made things a little difficult because even when I stopped to fix it, the would rip again a mile or two down the road.

The course was absolutely stunning. We ran along the coast for awhile and the water was an icy blue while we were right next to the base of the mountains. I wish I had my camera because I was blown away by the view. I loved watching people's faces as they turned around and saw the mountains towering over us right next to the sea.

Overall I was thoroughly impressed with the race and it has been my favorite experience running a half! My time was unexpectedly great (1:58:30), the course was amazing, and I felt great the entire time! Considering how much training I did, this was not expected!