The race is over...

We did it!!!! As a team, we raised over $10,000 to go directly to Loving South Africa (www.lovingsa.org)! Thanks to the generosity of many family and friends, thousands of South African lives will be touched, many will receive life saving anti-retroviral drugs, and many will be loved in a multitude of ways! I am so proud of our team. We ran in bright red shirts with the yellow Loving South Africa logo and website on it, and I received many questions on LSA. What a great way to get exposure!

On a personal note- I had a fabulous race! It was so much more fun than I ever imagined. Everything about the day was perfect! The weather was sunny and 60. The course was beautiful, and we ran past all the great Indianapolis landmarks and through some great neighborhoods. In one of the neighborhoods, the children had decorated and put up signs for us as well as made chalk drawings and messages all over the pavement. There were many little kids and their parents out cheering for us in their pajamas! As we ran down Massachusettes Ave, there was a band playing! Perhaps one of my favorite parts was the 8 mile water station! Many of my friends had volunteered to man this water station and it was so great to see them all as I got just past the halfway point of the race. Aaron and the girls were there and Syd ran out and gave me a huge hug! Due to Aaron and his mad driving skills, he managed to manipulate his way around all the racers to be at the starting line, the halfway water station, then the finish line! If you could have seen the traffic and amount of roads blocked off for the race, you would understand what a feat that was! I felt wonderful the whole time, had no problems running (except the avalanche of snot from my nose due to a slight cold) and really enjoyed the day. I am happy to say, that while I didn't run my hardest, (which was part of my goal... to just run and enjoy the race without overdoing it) I still broke a personal best time with and official time of 1:59 and 23 sec. It is definitely NOT a world record pace (the guy who won finished over 20 minutes before me!) but it was a good time for me. I was 39th in my age bracket for females! To be able to run a bit over 13 miles in 2 hours even while enjoying every minute of it, and raising money and awareness for LSA.... makes for a perfect day!!!